Organizing for America | Walter Hecht's Blog: Racism

Racism

By Walt - Sep 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm EDT

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I have just re-read James Baldwin's book, Go tell it on the Mountain, first published in 1953 while he was living an expatriate life in France, It is his version of what life in the US was like for blacks in the middle of the 20th century. Things have changed but some things have not. Read the book and try to put yourself in the place of a black man in the US. Empathy can be improved with practice. James Baldwin was one of our most influential black writers and he died in 1987.

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AS A WHITE...I HAVE MANY | Report to Admin

By SUE DUVALL SMITH from IndianaV.O.B. Sep 16th 2009 at 3:10 pm EDT (Updated Sep 16th 2009 at 3:10 pm EDT)

AFRICAN AMERICAN FRIENDS...I HAVE ALREADY BEEN THERE TAKING THEM SOMEWHERE WITH ME. IT'S MOSTLY THE OLDER GENERATION THAT ACTS WITH DISRESPECT. KIDS TODAY ACCEPT EACH OTHER AND ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE RAINBOW THEY LIVE IN....IT'S MIDDLE AGED AND OLDER CAUSING A HUGE PROBLEM...THIS WAS PASSED TO THEM FFROM THEIR PARENTS. WE DO NOT NEED TO REPEAT THESE MISTAKES. THERE ARE MANY DAYS AND I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE THAT I WOULD RATHER BE AFRICAN AMERICAN THAN MINGLE WITH WHITES WHO ARE HATEFUL.

Re: AS A WHITE...I HAVE MANY | Report to Admin

By Fire Is Born Sep 16th 2009 at 5:42 pm EDT (Updated Sep 16th 2009 at 5:42 pm EDT)

You said it well, Sue. Made me shudder just imagining the said mingling. Sadly, this keeps me far away from my own ethnic kind.

I have a story about California. In this state of the USA I once lived, almost consecutively, with two men. One was a blue eyed Nordic looking University professor with a cute European accent(that U. starts withe letter "S"), and the other was Black American without. Regardless of the internal meanders of the two relationships, you guess how much easier it was to be here with the white man and that "S" backdrop, as opposed to the social pain and social losses of living with the poor black man. Mixed couple constitute a mere 1 percent of all couples in this country. And being a mixed couple is still another thing than simply being a black male.

We all three are still friends.

I am now in the process of learning how to do the same in Honduras, without the professor, who moved to Australia.

Re: AS A WHITE...I HAVE MANY | Report to Admin

By SUE DUVALL SMITH from IndianaV.O.B. Sep 16th 2009 at 8:22 pm EDT (Updated Sep 16th 2009 at 8:22 pm EDT)

THANKS FOR YOUR COMMENT FIB...GOD BLESS OUR AWESOME 'RAINBOW' PRESIDENT!!!...:)

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