RW
11-16-2008, 08:30 PM
To the Black Guy:
You have been at my job, several times. On Saturday night, among other things, you told both another woman (of uncertain ethnicity,) and me "I can tell...YOU didn't vote for Obama." She did for the hope and change" crap. You not only didn't apologize, but you turned to me, looked me up and down, and said, "I can tell you definitely didn't vote for Obama."
I'm there to sell wine, but if I ever get the chance away from work to pin you up against the wall and say what I am writing...
SO, cuz I'm blond, blue eyed, big chested and WHITE, I'm a racist?
Lemme give you some personal background.
I come from a mixed marriage, no, not racially, but politically. My dad, a self-made man, who grew up as the youngest of five, his mother single (a terrible shame in the 20's) in the tenements (ghettos to you) in Jersey City, was a self proclaimed "bleeding heart liberal." My mother was somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun.
It wasn't until I was 16, when I found out where HIS dad came from...a First Family of Georgia...know what that is? Those are people who came over as WHITE slaves, from debtors' prisons, many were imprisoned falsely. This was the 1600's, Mr. Black Guy. I'm from slaves, too. My mother came over on the boat, from Ireland. ALL "dirty Irish" had to submit to public showers, and have their heads shaved.
Yet, you are convinced because I'm White, I know nothing about discrimination and perpetuate it against YOUR race and YOUR people.
When I was six, my parents moved to North Carolina to run the only industry in what was, in the mid fifties, the poorest county in that state, it was a pin factory. His oldest sister married a Jewish man, who saw a good business opportunity, when he saw one, started it, worked hard, and dropped dead in his factory. My dad had a strong sense of family and down we went to NC.
My dad turned the factory into a 24 hour operation, employing more people, Black and White. He desegregated the entire factory. From bathrooms to lunch rooms to everyone having to do prime time work to doing the grave yard shift, they all were treated equally.
My mother raised us Roman Catholic. NC at the time was less than 1/10th of 1 percent Catholic. Have you ever been so hated that the KKK burned a cross on yer lawn at 1 am? Those scenes out of movies where big men on bigger horses, raise, and burn the cross, and proceed to gallop around the victims' house, yelling and screaming filth are dead on. I still get chills remembering that awful night.
The closest Catholic church was two hours away in Asheville, where the Arch Bishop was. My mother demanded and got, money from him to build a little church. We were also "given" a young Father Tom Clemens, smack outta the seminary.
My mother bought the land, and hired the contractors, and, whatever was done, was torn down at night. The contractors quit, the cross was burned and my Methodist father took action.
He called all workers to the main floor, even night workers, and told them what had been happening, and said, "If you cannot set aside your unreasonable hatred, for my wife's faith, I shall shut down this place, and you'll not only no longer have Catholics in your town, but you won't have jobs, either."
The foreman, Mr. Ford, stepped forward, "why, Mister Bill, we thought you were one of our boys." Dad said, "Yer right, I'm not Catholic, but I signed a paper promising our children would be raised such. I don't break promises, not to my wife's Church, not to my family and not to any of you. I am closing this factory for three days, with pay, to give all of you a chance to decide which is more important...your hatred of what you don't know or your jobs."
I was there, my mother was afraid to send my brother and I to school, so I went with Dah, and brother stayed with Mother and youngest, at the time, brother.
My father then went to his office and called Fr. Tom. "Tom, meet me at my house in an hour, wear jeans, an old shirt, and strong shoes." Dah and I then went to the meager hardware store, and bought tools, BOXES of tools.
We got home, and my Dah announced, "Tom, we're gonna build a church." NEITHER knew a darn thing about construction, but for the three days, those two labored in the blazing Carolina sun. On the fourth day, he opened up the factory, called the contractors back to build the church.
Funny thing, instead of every night the church was torn down, it was built MORE! We had our little church completed in two weeks.
But you assume I am a typical White person.
We finally landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1966, our high schools were desegregated. As was the custom of the times, the Black schools, to show "separate but EQUAL" had far better facilities, including tennis courts, and an indoor Olympic sized heated swimming pool, and one grand football field! A few White athletes moved to LB Landry, and a few Blacks moved over to our 100 year old, no air conditioning school. There was ONE incident when "our Blacks" were hassled. 6 rednecks got pummeled by about 15 out raged White students. "Our Blacks" were accepted immediately, and settled in whichever place they wanted.
Back then, unless you were an Old New Orleans Black, (and there were quite a few, established, for hundreds of years, and well off Black families) a Black needed a White sponsor to get a decent home, or decent job, no matter how well educated. I cannot tell you the number of people my mother sponsored and NEVAH was either ashamed of her choices or was "screwed over" by her Black friends.
When she died, those Blacks still living in New Orleans, who remembered her, darn near canonized her.
Yet, you think you know a "typical White person" when you look at me.
In 1976, I worked on the campaign of the first Black mayor not just of New Orleans, but one of the first Blacks to govern any major city, anywhere. At that time, N.O. was about 30% Black, and not the 80% or so it is now.
I supported Dutch Morial because he was firm in his campaign to wreak havoc in the corrupt New Orleans machine. There were times when he would address an auditorium full of Blacks, and I was the only White face there. He always said, "don't vote for me, cuz I'm a brother. Just because yer Black doesn't mean I'm gonna treat you any differently than anyone else. If you are strong, honest, hardworking, and upright, come, be part of the solution. If you are a crook, or lazy, then you are part of the problem and I have the solution for you...get outta town before I kick you outta town."
I supported Mr. Morial, not because he was Black, and it was an historic event, but because I believed in what he said (and DID) for my beloved Crescent City.
But you think I'm a typical racist White person, just looking at me.
I owned radio stations in rural Iowa, prolly among the whitest states, at that time, the 90's, in our country. When people were finally convinced that I wasn't a person from a foreign country, (because of my thick accent) but from "The South," said with a snicker, they rushed to assure me, "we only have about 30 Blacks in town and they are pretty harmless.
When school districts were redrawn, placing some of these Black children in "White schools," a very prominent White woman called me, asking that I head up a committee to fight the redistricting, not only would HER children have to go to school with little Black children, mine, too. "I KNOW you are against (and she lowered her voice) 'diversity,' you are from THE SOUTH.'"
I proceeded to tell her that unless this cheap town ponied up for another high school, not only were her kids gonna go to high school with these same Black children (and more whose parents moved from Chicago because of drugs and crime, thinking a small Iowa town was far better) she didn't want her children to sit next to, but they'd have to go to school with MY White trash kids, and she should send her kids 50 miles away to the private school, and spare the city from spending anytime dealing with HER racism.
Yet, you think I'm a typical White racist who wouldn't vote for Obama cuz he's Black.
You say you are a former, long time broadcaster. You should know, in small towns, radio station owners generally stay neutral in politics. Bad for biz to take a stand.
Our city was such a mess! The city council and so-called mayor were on power trips.
I not only publicly came out for who was to be the first Black mayor of any town in Iowa, but the first Black female, to boot. Did I support Mrs. Wynn cuz this was an historic event?
Nope. I figured any chick who could raise 10 kids to be productive college educated (working themselves thru college, NO help from the government cuz Mrs. Wynn said " I didn't raise parasites.")plus deal with a husband with Alzheimer's, HAD to be smart enough, strong enough and firm enough to whip the city fathers into shape.
I hosted fund raisers in my home. This town of 28,000 had an odd culture, one habit being they did NOT have guests for dinner in their homes, but in their garages. My hospitality, to anyone, let alone a Black woman, was definitely foreign to them!
I put my business and my childrens' future on the line for this brilliant, good natured woman.
She won and as far as I know, 16 or more years later, she's still mayor.
Yet, you assume I'm a racist, and didn't vote for Obama cuz he is Black.
How wrong you are.
Nov 4, 2008, WAS an historical event, but NOT because our country elected a Black man.
No, it is historic because we elected a Marxist, a socialist, whose public philosophies and policy statements are the absolute antithesis of what our Constitution and Declaration of Independence not only stand for but STATE IN THE WRITTEN WORD. We elected a man who may not even be eligible for President...his birth records have been sealed.
No, Nov 4, 2008, wasn't historic because we elected a Black man.
No, it is historic because that's the night the lights went out in America.
You have been at my job, several times. On Saturday night, among other things, you told both another woman (of uncertain ethnicity,) and me "I can tell...YOU didn't vote for Obama." She did for the hope and change" crap. You not only didn't apologize, but you turned to me, looked me up and down, and said, "I can tell you definitely didn't vote for Obama."
I'm there to sell wine, but if I ever get the chance away from work to pin you up against the wall and say what I am writing...
SO, cuz I'm blond, blue eyed, big chested and WHITE, I'm a racist?
Lemme give you some personal background.
I come from a mixed marriage, no, not racially, but politically. My dad, a self-made man, who grew up as the youngest of five, his mother single (a terrible shame in the 20's) in the tenements (ghettos to you) in Jersey City, was a self proclaimed "bleeding heart liberal." My mother was somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun.
It wasn't until I was 16, when I found out where HIS dad came from...a First Family of Georgia...know what that is? Those are people who came over as WHITE slaves, from debtors' prisons, many were imprisoned falsely. This was the 1600's, Mr. Black Guy. I'm from slaves, too. My mother came over on the boat, from Ireland. ALL "dirty Irish" had to submit to public showers, and have their heads shaved.
Yet, you are convinced because I'm White, I know nothing about discrimination and perpetuate it against YOUR race and YOUR people.
When I was six, my parents moved to North Carolina to run the only industry in what was, in the mid fifties, the poorest county in that state, it was a pin factory. His oldest sister married a Jewish man, who saw a good business opportunity, when he saw one, started it, worked hard, and dropped dead in his factory. My dad had a strong sense of family and down we went to NC.
My dad turned the factory into a 24 hour operation, employing more people, Black and White. He desegregated the entire factory. From bathrooms to lunch rooms to everyone having to do prime time work to doing the grave yard shift, they all were treated equally.
My mother raised us Roman Catholic. NC at the time was less than 1/10th of 1 percent Catholic. Have you ever been so hated that the KKK burned a cross on yer lawn at 1 am? Those scenes out of movies where big men on bigger horses, raise, and burn the cross, and proceed to gallop around the victims' house, yelling and screaming filth are dead on. I still get chills remembering that awful night.
The closest Catholic church was two hours away in Asheville, where the Arch Bishop was. My mother demanded and got, money from him to build a little church. We were also "given" a young Father Tom Clemens, smack outta the seminary.
My mother bought the land, and hired the contractors, and, whatever was done, was torn down at night. The contractors quit, the cross was burned and my Methodist father took action.
He called all workers to the main floor, even night workers, and told them what had been happening, and said, "If you cannot set aside your unreasonable hatred, for my wife's faith, I shall shut down this place, and you'll not only no longer have Catholics in your town, but you won't have jobs, either."
The foreman, Mr. Ford, stepped forward, "why, Mister Bill, we thought you were one of our boys." Dad said, "Yer right, I'm not Catholic, but I signed a paper promising our children would be raised such. I don't break promises, not to my wife's Church, not to my family and not to any of you. I am closing this factory for three days, with pay, to give all of you a chance to decide which is more important...your hatred of what you don't know or your jobs."
I was there, my mother was afraid to send my brother and I to school, so I went with Dah, and brother stayed with Mother and youngest, at the time, brother.
My father then went to his office and called Fr. Tom. "Tom, meet me at my house in an hour, wear jeans, an old shirt, and strong shoes." Dah and I then went to the meager hardware store, and bought tools, BOXES of tools.
We got home, and my Dah announced, "Tom, we're gonna build a church." NEITHER knew a darn thing about construction, but for the three days, those two labored in the blazing Carolina sun. On the fourth day, he opened up the factory, called the contractors back to build the church.
Funny thing, instead of every night the church was torn down, it was built MORE! We had our little church completed in two weeks.
But you assume I am a typical White person.
We finally landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1966, our high schools were desegregated. As was the custom of the times, the Black schools, to show "separate but EQUAL" had far better facilities, including tennis courts, and an indoor Olympic sized heated swimming pool, and one grand football field! A few White athletes moved to LB Landry, and a few Blacks moved over to our 100 year old, no air conditioning school. There was ONE incident when "our Blacks" were hassled. 6 rednecks got pummeled by about 15 out raged White students. "Our Blacks" were accepted immediately, and settled in whichever place they wanted.
Back then, unless you were an Old New Orleans Black, (and there were quite a few, established, for hundreds of years, and well off Black families) a Black needed a White sponsor to get a decent home, or decent job, no matter how well educated. I cannot tell you the number of people my mother sponsored and NEVAH was either ashamed of her choices or was "screwed over" by her Black friends.
When she died, those Blacks still living in New Orleans, who remembered her, darn near canonized her.
Yet, you think you know a "typical White person" when you look at me.
In 1976, I worked on the campaign of the first Black mayor not just of New Orleans, but one of the first Blacks to govern any major city, anywhere. At that time, N.O. was about 30% Black, and not the 80% or so it is now.
I supported Dutch Morial because he was firm in his campaign to wreak havoc in the corrupt New Orleans machine. There were times when he would address an auditorium full of Blacks, and I was the only White face there. He always said, "don't vote for me, cuz I'm a brother. Just because yer Black doesn't mean I'm gonna treat you any differently than anyone else. If you are strong, honest, hardworking, and upright, come, be part of the solution. If you are a crook, or lazy, then you are part of the problem and I have the solution for you...get outta town before I kick you outta town."
I supported Mr. Morial, not because he was Black, and it was an historic event, but because I believed in what he said (and DID) for my beloved Crescent City.
But you think I'm a typical racist White person, just looking at me.
I owned radio stations in rural Iowa, prolly among the whitest states, at that time, the 90's, in our country. When people were finally convinced that I wasn't a person from a foreign country, (because of my thick accent) but from "The South," said with a snicker, they rushed to assure me, "we only have about 30 Blacks in town and they are pretty harmless.
When school districts were redrawn, placing some of these Black children in "White schools," a very prominent White woman called me, asking that I head up a committee to fight the redistricting, not only would HER children have to go to school with little Black children, mine, too. "I KNOW you are against (and she lowered her voice) 'diversity,' you are from THE SOUTH.'"
I proceeded to tell her that unless this cheap town ponied up for another high school, not only were her kids gonna go to high school with these same Black children (and more whose parents moved from Chicago because of drugs and crime, thinking a small Iowa town was far better) she didn't want her children to sit next to, but they'd have to go to school with MY White trash kids, and she should send her kids 50 miles away to the private school, and spare the city from spending anytime dealing with HER racism.
Yet, you think I'm a typical White racist who wouldn't vote for Obama cuz he's Black.
You say you are a former, long time broadcaster. You should know, in small towns, radio station owners generally stay neutral in politics. Bad for biz to take a stand.
Our city was such a mess! The city council and so-called mayor were on power trips.
I not only publicly came out for who was to be the first Black mayor of any town in Iowa, but the first Black female, to boot. Did I support Mrs. Wynn cuz this was an historic event?
Nope. I figured any chick who could raise 10 kids to be productive college educated (working themselves thru college, NO help from the government cuz Mrs. Wynn said " I didn't raise parasites.")plus deal with a husband with Alzheimer's, HAD to be smart enough, strong enough and firm enough to whip the city fathers into shape.
I hosted fund raisers in my home. This town of 28,000 had an odd culture, one habit being they did NOT have guests for dinner in their homes, but in their garages. My hospitality, to anyone, let alone a Black woman, was definitely foreign to them!
I put my business and my childrens' future on the line for this brilliant, good natured woman.
She won and as far as I know, 16 or more years later, she's still mayor.
Yet, you assume I'm a racist, and didn't vote for Obama cuz he is Black.
How wrong you are.
Nov 4, 2008, WAS an historical event, but NOT because our country elected a Black man.
No, it is historic because we elected a Marxist, a socialist, whose public philosophies and policy statements are the absolute antithesis of what our Constitution and Declaration of Independence not only stand for but STATE IN THE WRITTEN WORD. We elected a man who may not even be eligible for President...his birth records have been sealed.
No, Nov 4, 2008, wasn't historic because we elected a Black man.
No, it is historic because that's the night the lights went out in America.