This afternoon, I was sitting at the computer and my son was watching the History Channel, it was a show about the 50's. I was born in the mid 50's, so obviously, my memories are limited. I don't ever recall seeing a "whites only" sign anywhere. I grew up in the North. I was taught to refer to black people as colored people, no one in my family ever used derogatory words regarding anyone of another color, race or religion. As I watched the show today I was horrified by the story of the young man who had supposedly flirted with a white woman and it resulted in his death, a horrible, horrible death. He was a boy, all of 14. Now I know that all 14 year olds aren't innocents, but a few winks and a bit o' sass shouldn't bring about the kind of beating this boy experienced and then his death. I'd heard this story before, but I'd never seen the footage of the boy's poor mother and of the smug, arrogant, men who brought about this young man's death. I was particularly disgusted by the flagrant affection displayed by the boy's accuser and the way she "sucked face" with her husband in front of the cameras. I suppose if it had occured in this day and age she'd probably being spreading her virtuous self for Playboy the next week. But, I'm getting off track. The victim's mother commented about how affection all the family members of the accused were. How they sat with their young children on their laps and how their mother doted over them. Its truly a mystery how they coud have taken this poor woman's son away from her, when clearly, they understood the bond between and parent and child. It mystifies me. Maybe we make a mistake in believing that we are so far advanced and so far beyond our primal urges. This young man had tread where, according to them, he didn't belong. He'd been familiar with a white woman. These men, apparently, felt challenged by that.
Just before I left for work I saw an E-mail, Ith, had sent, it was regarding a post from Chief Wiggles blog It's an interesting post. This paragraph -
"What kind of place is it that will deliberately breed such contempt and hatred for people, hatred that knows no bounds or limitations and will stop at nothing to accomplish their goal of killing innocent human beings? People that will do such things are blinded by their own relentless hatred that they cannot even see the good that is being done over here."
Reminded me of what I'd watched earlier in the day. The sheer hatred demonstrated in the faces of the whites in that courtroom and in a later segment about the 8 black students going off to the newly segregated high school in Arkansas and the dispite that ensued between President Eisenhower and the Govenour of Arkansas. I wondered where young women, about 15 years of age, learned such hatred for other 15 year olds who just happened to have a different color skin? It was disgusting and frightening to watch the such young people have such hatred in their faces. I found myself asking what type of place breeds such contempt and hatred?
Maybe we haven't learned enough from our own past. Where did our hatred come from? It was television that brought the ugly face of racism to the forefront, is it possible that the Iraq people are just so cut off from the outside world that they "don't know any better"? I don't know the answers, I wish I did.
Posted by Mickey at August 21, 2003 3:26 AM