1st hand stories of racism, describe a experience you've had or personally observed.
August 28, 2014 at 11:27 pm
I've been thinking about the issues put forth by the Ferguson, Mo unrest and I wandered what experiences my forum members have either personally had or one's that they have observed directly themselves.
Two big ones stood out in my life. In Kentucky near the East Tennessee border I was walking with 5 girls to the grocery store as a student. (circa 1985) One of the girls that was walking with us was black and from somewhere out west, I don't remember where anymore. As we walked down the road a couple of red necks stopped their truck and the passenger threw a plastic cup of tobacco spit on the black girl while saying several horrible things. It was the day before classes was to start and myself and my friends tried in vain to get the hysterical girl to quit crying and stay. We promised we would do everything we could to keep such things away from her. In the end, she went home and we never saw her again. I hope that the girl was able to find a better college and didn't miss out, but I will never forget the vivid disappointment in her eyes. I don't know why she chose the school, it had a cute campus and was founded by order of President Abraham Lincoln, but it was in the heart of the Appalachian redneck belt, so I suppose it wasn't as uncommon as I thought it was, but up to that point, the worst racism I had personally seen had been the horrible racist questions that some completely unaware whites asked of blacks or other races.
No more than a couple of years later, I landed in Hattisburg, Mississippi at the University of S & M. (Yes, I knew Brett Favre, he threatened to kill me!
) Again, on the day before classes was to begin, I heard a concert at the basketball auditorium of the type of music that I loved, now known as "old school funk" The flyers stated it was open to anyone for an small entry fee and I bought a ticket and walked into a concert where I was the only white I could see, but I was young and naive and it didn't matter to me. I quietly found a seat way up in the bleachers and listened to the band. About 10 minutes in, I noticed about 5 or 6 guys with their backs to the band staring me down. It made me uncomfortable so I got up with the intention of finding another seat nearer the door. The guys followed me and as I got to the door they began to run after me. I bolted through the door and the guys followed me outside and one of the guys brandished a knife and promised to kill me if I didn't stay away.
I've seen smaller things since then but I think personal stories are so interesting.
Two big ones stood out in my life. In Kentucky near the East Tennessee border I was walking with 5 girls to the grocery store as a student. (circa 1985) One of the girls that was walking with us was black and from somewhere out west, I don't remember where anymore. As we walked down the road a couple of red necks stopped their truck and the passenger threw a plastic cup of tobacco spit on the black girl while saying several horrible things. It was the day before classes was to start and myself and my friends tried in vain to get the hysterical girl to quit crying and stay. We promised we would do everything we could to keep such things away from her. In the end, she went home and we never saw her again. I hope that the girl was able to find a better college and didn't miss out, but I will never forget the vivid disappointment in her eyes. I don't know why she chose the school, it had a cute campus and was founded by order of President Abraham Lincoln, but it was in the heart of the Appalachian redneck belt, so I suppose it wasn't as uncommon as I thought it was, but up to that point, the worst racism I had personally seen had been the horrible racist questions that some completely unaware whites asked of blacks or other races.
No more than a couple of years later, I landed in Hattisburg, Mississippi at the University of S & M. (Yes, I knew Brett Favre, he threatened to kill me!
) Again, on the day before classes was to begin, I heard a concert at the basketball auditorium of the type of music that I loved, now known as "old school funk" The flyers stated it was open to anyone for an small entry fee and I bought a ticket and walked into a concert where I was the only white I could see, but I was young and naive and it didn't matter to me. I quietly found a seat way up in the bleachers and listened to the band. About 10 minutes in, I noticed about 5 or 6 guys with their backs to the band staring me down. It made me uncomfortable so I got up with the intention of finding another seat nearer the door. The guys followed me and as I got to the door they began to run after me. I bolted through the door and the guys followed me outside and one of the guys brandished a knife and promised to kill me if I didn't stay away.I've seen smaller things since then but I think personal stories are so interesting.
Find the cure for Fundementia!
