--- In [email protected], Michael Jackson <mjackson74@...> wrote: > > You are right again! Also I do barely remember the separate > bathrooms and drinking fountains - there were some places > in the South that took a while to get rid of them - where > did you grow up, if I may ask?
Florida until I started school, and then Albany, Georgia until I was about 14. At that point, my father became a more normal Air Force officer, and we started moving -- first to Morocco, then to El Paso, TX, etc. I've been moving every year or two (with a couple of exceptions) ever since. It kinda gets into your blood. As for the South, I to this day feel grateful to the United States Air Force for sending my father and his family to Morocco at such a formative time in my life. I was plunged into the Third World, and loved every minute of it, getting a real edu- cation in what the rest of the world was like. If I'd grown up in the US -- especially in the South -- I might not have ever known. > ________________________________ > From: turquoiseb <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 5:13 PM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Heaven on Earth for Marshy's Kin Folks > > --- In [email protected], "mjackson74" <mjackson74@> wrote: > > > > <snippus interruptus> > > So when folks like the current version of myself come along > > and say hey! Who IS that man behind the curtain the object > > referral people feel their very soul identity is being > > called into question. > > > > Some people here may find it offensive but drawing on my > > Southern heritage, the rednecks I was raised with could not > > imagine a world where white men were not superior to blacks. > > As my daddy said once, you work with 'em, you tolerate 'em > > but you don't socialize with them. > > > > Any idea of racial equality truly threatened their self > > identity that depended on belief of whites as a superior > > race and you could in some places I have been in the past > > get your ass kicked for offering any other opinion on the > > subject. > > I grew up in the South, too, so I can identify with > your metaphor. Possibly being older than you, I grew > up in an environment in which every restaurant had > two water fountains and four bathrooms, one set of > each for "white" and "colored." > > My parents -- bless them -- didn't think this way. > They thought more along the lines that your daddy > did, and I kinda caught their 'tude from them. I > was once thrown off of a city bus at age ten or so > for wanting to sit in the back row of the bus. I > liked it back there; it was spacious and one could > stretch out and enjoy oneself. But I was white. The > "back of the bus" was for "coloreds." > > The driver literally stopped the bus, got up, walked > back to the back of the bus and threw me off. The > "coloreds" I'd been having a fine time with waved > at me as the bus pulled away. None of the white > folks did. > > I think the metaphor extends to spiritual traditions. > People *get used to shit*. Whether that shit is the > caste system in India or "governors" being "better" > than "mere meditators," it's all shit. Once they > buy into defending the shit, they don't like being > told that it's shit. >
