Quote:
Originally posted by shakran
The message I got from the article was that the students A) didn't like the element of racism and B) realized that "African-American" is a stupid term to describe black people because 1) not all Africans are black and 2) not all black people are from Africa.
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Bingo!! That's the message
YOU got. And believe me, I applaud you for it. That's the message that I wish
everyone got. I knew that a lot would.
Unfortunately, in this case, knowing what I do of Westside High, and the elitist little snots that go there...I don't think that was the original intent. Not for one moment. They just wanted to stir up trouble...and did. What they
unintentionaly did was to get the whole country talking about it...which is...good.
We are not going to stamp out racism in my lifetime. But we are getting closer with each generation. My mother grew up in the deep south, Florida, to be exact, in the '50s. Segregation was a way of life. When she married my father, in 1960, her grandfather would not allow my father into his house, because...
"No damn Yankee is ever gonna step foot in my house." (Note: he
did finally relent...3 years later...2 years after my birth...in Pennsylvania) When my mother first came to Pennsylvania, from Florida, in 1960, she was absolutely horrified when a "Negro" woman sat down next to her, at the lunch counter in J. J. Newberry's. That just wasn't done in Florida. Dad gave her a crash course in the ways of race relations, in the northern states. When I was born, in 1962, it would have been
very easy for my mother to raise me into a little Ku Kluxer, but to her credit, she sensed that the time for change was coming, and did not. So, long story short, things
are getting better, all the time. But, we still have very long way to go.