Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Jim Crow Is Back In Style


The swimming pool incident takes my mind back to when I was young. Restaurants did not serve or allow Blacks. We would stop on the side of the road to use the restroom rather then go through a degrading, humiliating, anxiety ridden experience of using restrooms with blacks only signs on them—the sign another label for those guilty of desiring to be treated like human beings instead of animals.

The Civil Rights Bill passed in 1964.

"It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring. Powers given to enforce the bill were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years." ~~Wiki~~

It has become increasingly clear that they do not want to share the many opportunities America has to offer with minorities. Nor do they want to acknowledge the many accomplishments that any minority has achieved. Educational books used to teach our children are lily white, filled with achievements and accomplishments of Whites only as if to say no other race existed outside of forced servitude or their many conquest. Of course, much of the sordid, trickery, barbaric methods, and brutal details involved in forced servitude or their many conquests were left out and painted as glorious missions of civilizing those uncivilized savages.

On the other hand, we have black youth who have been Scarface indoctrinated and seem to think the way to settle their disputes is the old Al Capone way by killing each other. Moreover, urban America is held hostage by some wannabee Scarface clones that are getting on everyone’s last nerve and making White folks nervous and gearing up with guns up for the black takeover that Fox is telling them about.

Was the Civil Rights Bill a deceptive tool used to hoodwink black folks—a pacifier for a promise they never intended to keep—a sham? On the other hand, is it that you black people just do not know how to act and are destroying America and all the patriotic ideals it stands for? After all, you elected a Black President and he is not even born here according to the GOP folks. Bringing Jim Crow back ought to teach you Black folks a lesson and keep you from destroying American. Can we just sit down and have a real honest dialogue about race relations in America?

16 comments:

Black Diaspora said...

Granny, I'm gonna give this one a little more thought.

My knee-jerk response is getting a little worn, and I'd really like to offer something of substance to the discussion, and not just my usual rant.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Black Diaspora:

I understand. I'm feeling a little worn myself. I am still upset about that Drudge and NewRepublic piece labeling that child those awful names. So, I am trying to comment less today and probably should have waited to write a topic.

Anonymous said...

NO! GRANNY! this is GOOD writing! you are telling the truth and then some, these people are all in our face! and they are just waiting for us to react to their provoking, this is AMERICA at it's BEST! I say best because we need to know what is truly going on behind the scene's, you see I thought for a moment that (WE COULD ALL JUST GET ALONE)!!

You see for a moment I put REV. WRIGHT'S RAGE on the back burner, and I see now I cannot afford to keep my guard's down, see while BLACK AMERICA was excited about having a BLACK PRESIDENT, the OPPOSITION was planning their next move, and their plan is to TOTALLY DESTROY the CHARACTER, ADVANCEMENT, and STRENGTH of a RACE of people, that being the BLACK RACE! and some of us thought we had come so FAR!

GOD up above is watching what is going on, and he is not going to come to our rescue and get the WHITE MAN! NO! he is going to sit back and watch as we continue to press pass the INSULT'S! GOD has invested to much in our people, he has deposited a strength on the inside of us that is a MYSTERY to the WHITE MAN, so let them say their JIM CROW word's!!! we will still continue to move forward, we must! it may get hard but we have to finish the RACE, we have no other choice, now it may seem as if our RACE has not come far but, we are the one's in the lead, and we are waiting for the other RACE to catch up!

So let them keep their pool! they are the one's that continue to look defeated, their CHARACTER is being destroyed day by day!!

PROPHETESS WALLACE*

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Prophetess Wallace:

Yes, I believe that, and I believe that God has been preparing me for this time. I've been trying my best to get a message across to people, but sometimes I don't think they get it. I would like to get your e-mail address where we can chat in private, because the computer has ears.

msladydeborah said...

Alright Granny!

I love it when wisdom does some serious teaching and challenging.

I was born two years before Mother Rosa refused to get up off her seat on the bus. So I feel you on your comments.

What really made me angry was the attempt on some of the mother's part to force the swim club to take their children after they had been insulted. Why in the world should that organization get one dime of the fee? That made no sense to me. They made it plain that the children were not welcomed. It was ugly but it was also a slap of reality that got issued out. I am sad that the giver of that slap decided to issue it to a group of children. But it bothers me even more that our children can't swim in their own neighborhoods, or feel like they play safely in our neighborhoods or have facilities that they can attend.

And all of the problem is not due to racism. How you handle yourself is a factor. Not all of our children are off the chain-but the ones that are make it really hard on everyone else.

This is a great post. Keep on teaching-those who have ears will hear it and those who have eyes will see it.

TrueBlue said...

I think the swim club's act was terrible, but I also think that with respect to the Civil Rights Act it is the exception that proves the rule. Can you imagine something like this making the national news 50 years ago? Sure, there were the lunch counter sit-ins, but this sort of discrimination was once an unremarkable, everyday occurrence.

Blinders Off said...

Fantastic Post

Anonymous said...

Granny,
I really like your blog. It is classy, creative, and full of wisdom with superb questions for deep pondering:

"Was the Civil Rights Bill a deceptive tool used to hoodwink black folks—a pacifier for a promise they never intended to keep—a sham?"

I am not sure, but I have thought about it. We have been shammed so many times that I have become skeptical. When the white backlash against affirmitive action came after a short 30 odd years, I got the feeling that we might be getting shammed again. But we went along with it. Now, you must admit, as a race we tend to be suckers for a chance to be accepted and treated as equals. Look at what happened in Philly. That's a great example. I really think we should prepare ourselves for a steady increase in ugly racism while Obama is in office.

"Can we just sit down and have a real honest dialogue about race relations in America?"

Now that is the BIG question. I think not, but I could be wrong. IMO, I don't think Whites are interested in doing that.

I still think Obama was elected due to the "perfect political storm". Had that storm had a degree of imperfection in it, I don't think Obama would have had the votes to be President. Don't get me wrong, Obama is by far the brightest and most capable President of our time, and I know he will prove it. But many won't accept President Obama, no matter what, simply because of his skin color.

Anyway, great post!
A+

Sarge said...

I've been reading you and Fieldnegro for some time now, and I must say that it's nice to read the words of people who make sense and think before they communicate.

I remember those "good old days" and don't miss them a bit. I was present when King made his "I have a dream" speech. (I was working on the capitol dome, out to get coffee for the crew, got caught in the crowd and wound up there. Almost got fired) I heard the whole thing, was horrified (I was a caucasian in good standing)and my father tried to prove that people inside a TV set could hear you if you yelled loud enough, even if it was a recording. I have since read it many times. Sense we didn't want to hear, I guess.

I was a typical tenn at the time, but I really started wondering about people and the myth of white supremecy. About a block from the capitol was a burger stand, and the white man who owned it sold to everyone. Then came the 1964 act and he refused to sell to black people. So in a couple of weeks he'd dried up and blown away, since that was about three quarters of his custom.

But he said he was satisfied, no one was going to "make" him do anything with his property. Even to a teenager that didn't make sense.

I remember the white only establishments that had black kitchen staff. Where the customers paid no attention to what they were saying or the fact that there were black people handling their food. I've often wondered what such customers got as extras, all unknowing... and I won't say it wasn't deserved;).

All my life I've seen that most of what "they" wanted me to believe was pretty much just a shuck, slogans that were to make a mind set. Tools to keep one adhereing to the agenda of whoever was running the show.

Just keep up the good work. I'll keep reading.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

BTW, Granny yells at her tv set too sometimes. (smile)

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

sarge:

Thank you. You've have moved granny to tears with your sincere honesty. I felt the compassion in your words. I don't want to take up too much of the comments section because I want to leave it to my readers. However, let me share a personal story with you. One of my white ancestors was a wealthy man and when he died some of my family was included in the will and he divided the inheritance equally among his black and white children. Of course, the white children were fit to be tied, being that it was in the deep south, but it was nothing they could do about it. Later on they came to accept it and the fact that we are family.

Sometimes it takes pulling the scab off for a wound to heal.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Thank you A+, I appreciate you coming over and visiting my blog. Your intellectual contributions to the topics are always welcome and appreciated here.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Granny.

Sarge said...

Thank you, Granny.

I've been an outsider most of my life, being a military brat and in the military oneself sees to that.

But, if you look around yourself, string two thoughts together without cultural noise, unexpected things happen.

What you said about your family we sort of came at in "reverse" I'd guess you might say.

I remember being in my parent' living room and reading (at the time it occurred) about the couple who were exiled from Virginia for their interracial marriage. In that same room I met my daughter-in-law, who is a black woman. Some progress, I'd guess. Wonderful girl, great mom to her kids, great wife to my son (he NEEDS) a girl like her!)and a treasured friend.

But we got a (sort of) surprise about three years ago.

Our sons had suffered certain side effects from medical proceedures in the military which were discribed as "anomolies), reactions which Mediteranian and African stock people usually had.

My wife figured that a genetic test might be intersting, she had it done, and in the fullness of time, the results came back.

We actually went to the clinic where this was explained to us, and a young black man (a very nervous one) informed my wife that the indications were that there was a very strong and fairly close African heritage indicated. In the "good old days" she would probably have been classified as an "octoroon" by what he knew of history.

In our case, the reaction was simply, "Well, how 'bout THAT"? And a couple of questions got answered. The young man told us that our reaction to such news was not the norm. That was why he was nervous, he usually tried to palm it off on someone else. And he said it was more common than a lot of folks might be comfortable with.

But I think of what the implications of such news would have been fifty years ago, and I shudder. The fact that a lot of people would like it to be that way again is worse still.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

sarge:

There are a lot of whites that would be surprised if they had a genetic test or studied genealogy. Most people think it's the nose, lips, hair, etc., the traits mostly Blacks have, but they'd be shocked, that is not always so. Just like they would be surprise to learn that not all pure Africans had those traits either. I have knowledge of octoroons because part of my heritage is New Orleans where a lot of mixing was common until the anglo-saxon came into rule. It didn't really bother the French and Spanish as much as it did anglo-saxons. That is where the mess came in at.

The army can change a person's view about life in general. I suspect that some of those white supremacist with a racist ulterior motive who joined the military views will be changed too if put in the right situation. I don't have to tell you what I mean by that.

grinder said...

Well how about this: There is a series on the History Channel International called "Megadisasters." It deals with natural disaster of all kinds: earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroids, comets, floods, all kinds of things that have caused, or might someday cause, huge consequences on earth.

I am totally hooked on this series. I'm fascinated by the disasters, and I find myself oddly euphoric when I watch it. It's as if I realize what a charmed time we live in. Someday, the Yellowstone supervolcano will wipe us out, or the subduction fault off the coast of the Pacific Northwest will destroy Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, or that island in the Canary chain will collapse and cause a half-mile high tidal wave that will destroy every East Coast city from Miami to Boston. But today, we're okay.

Anyway, 75,000 years ago a supervolcano erupted in what is now Indonesia. This is the most active volcano zone on the planet, and the most dangerous. A supervolcano doesn't have a cone or a mountain. It happens at ground level and it is many thousands of times larger than even the biggest "regular" volcanoes.

When the Indonesian one went off, it threw so much ash into the atmosphere that the planet went dark for several years. Most life in earth died, including all but 3,000 humans in East Africa. We are all descended from those 3,000 people. Humans might have been on the planet for 5 million or so years, but today's human population basically traces back 75,000 years to the African survivors of the "winter" that followed that supervolcanic eruption.

The program was fascinating, and was very well researched. Among other things, they used DNA evidence to show that East Africans, even today, are more genetically diverse than any other population on the planet, which is a sign that they were the source for everyone else. They found the Indonesian supervolcano "caldera." And so on.

75,000 years isn't a long time in the context of earth's history. We are all East Africans.