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I grew up on Army posts as did my kids. We all had black friends and neighbors and co workers and class mates.
My sister is a retired cop, she is racist. My brother is a civilian, he is (not sure) . Racism is not authorized in the U.S. Army, end of story. I am retired and single now. I date white women, black woman, latina women, women.
I am familiar with the doll thing, kids of other races wanting blond dolls. My daughter was the same way when she was young (she is Vietnamese) and her daughter too was the same years later (she is half white but dark like her mother). Lots of smart people have tried to explain it. Kids' actions sometimes defy explanation. I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty, it ain't no white supremacy bull manure thing. It's just kids being kids. It's when (adults) parents get into the act that it starts getting stupid.
There are different barber shops on military bases. There are different nights at the NCO clubs for dancing or listening to the music.
Having been born in 1935, society was still segregated when I was a child. I remember the separate drinking fountains, separate bathroom stalls, back of the bus seats, whites only and blacks only schools. Nevertheless, my parents always told us there was goodness in all people and that skin color was unimportant to God. That's what I grew up believing and that is my attitude today. Skin color is not a consideration when judging the content of character.
Read what Thomas Jefferson thought about the two different races in America. You will be astounded.
I think this is a case of "dog if you do and dog if you don't". My only recollection of growing up white in the 50's and 60's in Atlanta GA was that my mother told us that people were all the same on the inside. We had a black maid who my sister and I were very close with. I remember after going off on a little "adventure" while mother was away on some errand, that we swore the maid (Freida) to secrecy. To my knowledge, mother never found out about what we did! However, "race" was never discussed in our house, so I guess we should be considered "bad people" for it. As whites if you talk about race, you are bad and if you don't you are also bad.
Read what Thomas Jefferson thought about the two different races in America. You will be astounded.
I wouldn't. Never liked our countries way of putting our statesmen from the past upon a sacred pedestal. Have been reading about our founding fathers since early grade school. I was obsessed with the Civil War as a child, and read many books about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars from the local library. I openly argued with my Georgia teachers when I was in junior high/high school about the factual misrepresentations in their lectures. My Georgia English teacher in ninth grade told our class that using "ain't" in speech and writing was a plus in her opinion. Moving from the Pennsylvania school system that proclamation didn't sit well with me at all. My Georgia teachers didn't like my outspokenness any more than I liked their perpetuating myths and falsehoods. As for our great forefathers Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson (and others of the time), they ultimately favored emancipation of the slaves, but few realize (even today!) that they thought that once freed, the emancipated should be made to leave the country.
Last edited by bongofury; 05-16-2010 at 10:45 AM..
I hope this is the right place to go on this little rant if not I apologize. A family member has a 4 yr old son who has a black father (mom is white father not in the picture). He is the most adorable little boy he has dark skin his older brother is really light with red hair (different dad). Everythin and I do mean everything that has anything to do with the 4 year old his mother says "it is b/c he's black" it has gotten to the point that this poor baby cries asking when he will be white like his brother. I repeat nothing has been done to this child b/c he is black, his mother is being ridiculous. Just to give you a feel for what I mean he was sent to detention for hitting a another boy with a rock. His mother says the the punishment had nothing to do with the fact that he made a classmates head bleed from hitting him with the rock it was simply b/c he is blac that he got punished. The mother makes these statements to this baby to the point that he says he hates himself b/c of his skin. This makes me curious about how the two boys in this family will view race as adults.
Poor kid - it sounds like his mother has a problem and is a racist. I knew a white woman who married a black man - and race was something she was going to wear on her sleeve. When someone complimented her child, saying the baby which was fair skinned at the point was very cute, the mother said "wait to see what they say when her color starts showing". The mother herself seemed to be a problem, almost like she was trying to make race a problem.
The schools are doing a lot of this. One time my kid came home after school on Martin Luther King day saying he felt sorry for black people. I asked him why and he said because black people have everything so hard and they're so poor.
I told him he didn't need to feel sorry for anyone and that I could introduce him to black people I work with who have things very good because they work hard and studied hard in college. Why are schools teaching 5 year olds who have not yet accomplished anything that they are in a position to pity anyone?
I'm sorry that you had to go through that and still are, to some extent.
It's completely unfair.
Might I ask; did they ever come around... at all?
They are in their mid-70s now and to my knowledge still do not know any black people, if that is possible! I am not sure thier prejudices have eased much. Thank goodness it did not rub off on me and my siblings!
I grew up on Army posts as did my kids. We all had black friends and neighbors and co workers and class mates.
My sister is a retired cop, she is racist. My brother is a civilian, he is (not sure) . Racism is not authorized in the U.S. Army, end of story. I am retired and single now. I date white women, black woman, latina women, women.
I am familiar with the doll thing, kids of other races wanting blond dolls. My daughter was the same way when she was young (she is Vietnamese) and her daughter too was the same years later (she is half white but dark like her mother). Lots of smart people have tried to explain it. Kids' actions sometimes defy explanation. I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty, it ain't no white supremacy bull manure thing. It's just kids being kids. It's when (adults) parents get into the act that it starts getting stupid.
I agree it has nothing to do with white supremacy, but do you mean that it is inherent then, that most children regardless of race, just prefer white skin blonde dolls?
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. Racism is not authorized in the U.S. Army, end of story. I am retired and single now. I date white women, black woman, latina women, women. 
