small brush shouldn't fuck with big timber

Death's Door, the view from the Spanish announcers table: from the archives.....niggerole

Friday, March 24

from the archives.....niggerole



“I want to tell you that there's not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."
Spoken by Strom Thurmond in a speech to the 1948 States Rights convention.

Hmmm, another racist dead and on his way to that big daisy chain in hell. People will say that Strom turned his life around and died a different man then what he was in his youth, I don’t really give a fuck, he was what he was. People sometime ask me why do I hang around with people full of tattoos and piercings. It’s because people like that don’t really give a fuck what color the cat on the next barstool is.

Racism is an ugly ugly thing and I’ve had to deal with it all my life; from being denied joining the Cub Scouts in my white neighborhood as a kid, to visiting my parents family in west Texas and not figuring out till I was a lot older why we had to go thru the back door of the restaurant my aunt worked in.

Why as a kid when we heard the word nigger directed at us all we could do was stare, cause if we dared fight it’ll be more trouble then it was worth. It was as a kid learning why my grandparents hated the white man so much. And why when he came around the other face was turned.

It was going through school reading all the history books and wondering why the stories sounded so different then from the way I was taught at home. It was watching cartoons and laughing at the “colored” characters and the way they were drawn till I learned why I shouldn’t.

As a kid watching the Black Panther’s on the TV and seeing em walk around my grade school and digging the vibe they put out, till my father had to go bust some of em, and telling me the way shit was. Its being told that I’m not “down” and not black enough because my parents beat it into me that learning was a gift, and that I learned to love reading and prided myself on speaking well.

I learned to hate the word “Nigger” with a passion I have for few things, and still can’t understand why other black folk insist on calling each other by that name as if it was something special. Fuck, just handfuls of years ago folks were dying over the use of that word.

It’s me feeling so sad and lost because the times have desensitized that word so much that white kids are not only greeting each other by that name but their black friends as well. Racism never really goes away, it always shows up when you least expect it.

Hell maybe having kids use the word nigger in their everyday conversations is a way to desensitize it. Maybe that’s the way to rid us of racism, I don’t know, I don’t have the answers. I just know another racist is dead and gone to hell. And that’s a good thing.

"and the monkey flipped the switch"

8 Comments:

Blogger Ole Blue The Heretic said...

People use the term coon ass as a badge of honor when 40 years ago it was considered bad.

Racism is a live and strong in the south, glad ole strum is dead, but over half of the people in the south would have to die for racism to begin dieng.

Sad it is.

11:07 AM  
Blogger ajw308 said...

I grew up in a small town and my grandmother lived in Philly. The first time I stayed at her place I was amazed at the streetlights, it was oh'dark-thirty and you could see up and down the streets like it was day.

The other thing that amazed me was all the people that were out at night. Both black and white. The black guys on the street scared me, but not the whites. It wasn't the best part of Philly my grandmother lived in.

I was probably older than 6, but definitely under 10. I stood at the window in the dark bedroom, and watched the people come and go on the lit street feeling afraid and unsettled.

Then it dawned on me that the white people out there were just as dangerous as the black people. There was no difference. With this realization, the unsettled feeling was gone and I knew I was safe in the house and I went to bed and slept soundly.

Many years later in college I dated a drop dead gorgeous black woman. She was a nursing major who had set her schools 440 record before graduating. She was both a scholar and an athlete.

My parents are liberal in their views, open minded, and progressive. They enjoyed the relationships some of the black teammates I had (I played football in college)with white girls. I thought they'd see Rachelle in the same light.

Boy, was I naive!

Both my parents went through the roof. They said things that I couldn't believe were coming out of their mouths.

It was at this time that I realized black folk must get discrimination from sources and directions that most people never expect, unless of course, you happen to be black and see it.

I don't get it, but I know that there is more racism out there than most white folk are aware of or would care to admit.

11:38 AM  
Blogger HateTaxes said...

I have never understood racism. How does one hate another person they do not know because of the color of their skin?

I was very lucky that my parents never treated people differently and I learned from them.

I lost many relatives in Europe during WWII because of racism and I just still don't get it. Thousands are dieing today because of racism. When one group of religious zealots thinks it is good to kill another group because they do not believe what they want them to believe. Why would anyone in this world, except my wife, family and friends give a crap what I think?

What is important to me is what is in the heart and soul, not what is on the skin.

12:06 PM  
Blogger SmedRock said...

Well written. I have to agree here, I can remember when being called a redneck would get your ass dusted off. So go figure. I thikn you are right, in wondering if desensitization is the key. But after thinkign about I don't belive so. After a time the meaning will lose it's signifigance, and thus it's history, which in the end we will not be able to learn from. Thus we are doomed to repat the cycle. keep up the good work.

1:27 PM  
Blogger Satyavati devi dasi said...

You know how I feel on this subject. What amazes me the most are the 'religious' racists. I don't mean the people who try and say that the Bible is racist (there are plenty of those) and who use that to rationalize their own racism. I mean the people who say 'Have a blessed day' at the grocery store. These same people go to the 'white' church and ask each other 'What would Jesus do?' And have you ever noticed that at all KKK meetings (not that I've ever been to one) they have an American flag, a gun and a Bible?

In my top ten list of 'bizarre occurrences in my life' was when we moved to Wilmington and I was driving to town and I saw this sign that said 'Acorn Grove Colored Grave Yard'. I nearly drove off the road. I was like 'oh Jesus, we've moved to a place where they segregate their DEAD..'

Later I found out that it was some kind of very old historical thing but it didn't make me feel any better. When I was born in 68, Wilmington had two hospitals: one for blacks and one for whites. One nursing school for blacks, one for whites. Wtf?

I never really saw racism as a kid growing up. (Yes, I realize I might be the only one who didn't.) My parents took different approaches to it: my mom was all sweet and light about how we're all the same, and my dad was more like 'assholes come in all colours'. They're both right.

Scott and I both hate prejudice in any form, whether it be on the basis of colour, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference or whatever. Prejudice is a manifestation of fear. It's ignorant and it does nothing but close down your world. Plus, it identifies with the material body, and that has nothing to do with who you really are as a person.

A lot of times I'll do things deliberately to force people around me to confront things that are alien or strange to them. I guess my name is a good place to start, but also how I dress, which changes daily, anything from redneck nurse to Hassidic Jew to Gulf Muslim to Indian Brahmin. And why not?

Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power.

1:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What can I say other than that was well written. We're at a strange period in our history in this country and I hope we can look back at it all someday and see it as a time of progress and growth.

I'm not sure I agree with Ole Blue about the South. Yeah, we got our history but while the North shed it's institionalized racism quicker than the South, there are plenty of hardcore individuals who are racists up north of the Mason Dixon Line.

Thurmond's dead, as are Maddox and Wallace and a zillion other old Kluckers. As they all pass on we get a little closer to where we need to be. But then I see Robert Bird on the Senate floor, or read something like this post and I realize progress sure is slow sometimes.

4:04 PM  
Blogger Xavier Onassis said...

I agree with everything I've read here.

I have an Uncle down in Louisiana. When I was a kid, him and his family came up for a visit once. We were all watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. One of the guests was Dizzy Gillespie. My Uncle had to get up and leave the room because he was so nauseated that a black man (not the term he used, as I recall) was on TV.

I've tried to raise my daughter without any of that baggage. Not by making a huge deal of it and preaching to her. But by trying to be an example. She's 12 now. So far, so good. I hope.

I will never claim to be 100% predjudice free. It would be hubris for any of us (and I'm not just talking about white folk)to make that claim. Bigotry can be a very subtle and insidious parasite. All any of us can do is aspire to rise above it. Recognize it when it rears it's head and whack that fucking mole.

By the way, not many people know this. But when they raised the confederate submarine the CSS Hunley, scrawled on one of it's tail fins was the slogan "Re-elect Strom Thurmond".

6:14 PM  
Blogger Rose said...

As long as there is ignorance and fear there will be hatred. Love will be our salvation and everyone of us is capable of making a difference.

1:28 AM  

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