1961: at a lunch counter thirty minutes from where I now live...

[ninevirtues]

.... black students staged a sit-in to protest the fact that they were not allowed to eat there. In fact, that was one of the seminal events of the civil rights movement.

In the past 18 months, I've seen....

- a segregated drinking fountain (Old and not used anymore, but _still there_)
- Numerous confederate flags

And heard....

- a guy I know, who rides with his black buddy, use the N word in polite conversation
- Stories of dire black poverty (How many kids can you fit in a twin bed, anyway?)
- My mixed-race buddy lose it, slightly, on the issue of race. (Hey, if I'd ever drunk from a segregated drinking fountain, I'd lose it too. He's earned it.)

Living in California, in the rareified world of tech-- where skin color mattered, but a lot less than technical ability-- the issues of race, and civil rights, seemed very far away. Learning that the civil rights movement started, at least partly, in Greensboro--- makes it closer.

Comments

[rose42dance.livejournal.com]

The last time I studied the history of racism was when I was back in school full-time (here in California). The texts we were assigned to read and study told stories that took place in California as well as across the country. The lynching story that took place in Fremont still haunts me.

My (white) sociology professor had moved out of the deep south (he was a member of the "old middle class") to get away from the segregation and confederate-minded dynamic. It was a hoot to have learned the differences in classes partly because of his attitude toward those he left behind to continue living off history's skeleton. It is disturbing that we have come so far, yet pockets abound that demonstrate a distinct lack of diplomacy.

I love to read of your experiences. When I hear such things, it makes me aware of things that are out there which I would otherwise forget.