--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <no_re...@...> wrote:
Interesting post. It brought to my mind some things I had not thought of in years regarding race and childhood. One of my first memories of race was when I was about 5-6 and went with my parents to my first major league baseball game. A lot of names of the players were in my head from listening to over the prior years or months, but I had not seen pictures of many of the players. I had not yet discovered baseball cards. So as the players were warming up I was identifying them from my program -- that had pictures. And one of the big names I had heard, I was excited to make the connection to who he was in the field. And I matter of factly said, "Oh, so and so is a colored boy". It was just an observation, not a value judgment in any way -- like "wow, isn't that interesting" -- not that I had any negative connotations about blacks, it was with the same glee and sense of discovery that I might say, "look a red car". My mother instantly hushed me, like I had done something wrong which puzzled me -- I had no bad intent. But as I figured out, I was mimicking words I had heard at home apparently -- and it embarrassed my mother that I was happily and innocently sharing the family vocabulary with those around us. With the times, my parents vocabulary shifted. But I could hear the echo of generations -- I had heard my mother probably saying "colored boy" about a black man and just figured that was the correct thing to say -- no disrespect meant in any way. And she probably heard the phrase from her home and generation. Things get passed down.But apparently they had not passed down any ill feeling about blacks to me, just a demeaning vocabulary. And my brother and I grew to have quite different views growing up and in high school. Same gene pool, same environment -- same nurture/nature. Yet he was a horrible racist -- and I had none of it and would have none of it -- growing incensed when he would say stupid racist things. Not sure why that occurred. (And he matured upon adulthood )-- it was a phase -- probably picked up from peers.) So a lot of factors determine our views on ethnicity when growing up, I don't think its one factor. > I'll be able to give up telling Dumb Blond jokes, You Might Be A > Redneck jokes, etc. I laugh at some of these.But its in the context of blondes, some stunning and very smart, who love telling them, and laughing expansively and contagiously. And the Foxworthy and the blue-collar quartet can be funny IMO, and the audience appear to have some redneck affection -- they are laughing at themselves and / or family. Self-depricating humor is one of the better varieties of humor, I think.
