The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 11, 2013, 10:43:13 am ---I can't say why, but as I was reading this I kept thinking things like, "Wait, I was 6 when that happened," or, "Wait, I was 7 that year." This isn't "history," this is "current events"--"current" to my own lifetime.
--- End quote ---
Mine too, since you and I are the same age. It's mind-boggling.
When I lived in the South, I was always amazed whenever I would see two older people -- one black, one white -- conversing cordially. I would think, wow, they've really managed to change with the times. Now I think maybe they were just both socialized to be polite, and that there still might have been plenty of racism involved, underneath the surface. Thanks for that enlightenment, Paula Deen!
Not that there's not racism in the North, as well. There is, but it just takes a somewhat different form: more segregated, more about "the other."
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on July 11, 2013, 10:42:31 pm ---When I lived in the South, I was always amazed whenever I would see two older people -- one black, one white -- conversing cordially. I would think, wow, they've really managed to change with the times. Now I think maybe they were just both socialized to be polite, and that there still might have been plenty of racism involved, underneath the surface.
--- End quote ---
I think you may well be right about the people being socialized to be polite. Your comment reminds me of my experiences when I went to graduate school in Williamsburg, Virginia, now more than 30 ( :o ) years ago. As a Yankee who grew up in the Sixties and Seventies I had been "socialized" to expect black people to have chips on their shoulders toward white people. But, as best I can remember after all these years, I never met a single black person while I was in graduate school who acted that way. Everyone was friendly.
(I write this recognizing that Williamsburg is a tourist town, where it's in everyone's interest to act friendly toward outsiders and visitors, but, still. ...)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on July 12, 2013, 09:09:19 am ---I think you may well be right about the people being socialized to be polite. Your comment reminds me of my experiences when I went to graduate school in Williamsburg, Virginia, now more than 30 ( :o ) years ago. As a Yankee who grew up in the Sixties and Seventies I had been "socialized" to expect black people to have chips on their shoulders toward white people. But, as best I can remember after all these years, I never met a single black person while I was in graduate school who acted that way. Everyone was friendly.
(I write this recognizing that Williamsburg is a tourist town, where it's in everyone's interest to act friendly toward outsiders and visitors, but, still. ...)
--- End quote ---
I had the same exact experience in New Orleans.
Now and then I did encounter some fairly shocking racism by white people, though -- strangers like store owners or cab drivers who would make racist comments to me in a comradely way, I guess assuming I would agree. I had never experienced that in Minnesota, but then again, Minnesota at the time was about 95 percent white, whereas NOLA was 65 percent black. White Minnesotans had less reason to spout hate speech.
When looking for our first apartment, I would call about a listing and, among other questions, ask the person on the phone what kind of neighborhood it was in. What I meant was, is it a quiet residential street or a more urban setting, are there lots of cute little restaurants and coffee shops, is it near a park or the river. They would answer something like, "Well, it's mixed." I stopped asking.
Jeff Wrangler:
I just finished the July 22 article about British egg collectors. Weird. I knew the Brits were nuts about birds, but. ... Weird.
Jeff Wrangler:
I was fascinated by the July 29 article about Ira Aldridge (1807-1867), an African American actor who had great success in Europe, and his daughter Luranah (1860-1932), an opera signer who apparently would have sung at Bayreuth if she hadn't gotten sick. What really struck me, however, was the note that another of Ira Aldridge's daughters, Amanda, a singer, composer, and teacher, taught no less than Paul Robeson and Philadelphia's own beloved Marian Anderson.
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