I have a VHS tape of old TV ads commercials, the one hit me was Rinso Blue Washing Detg, I remember it as dad had a grocery store and I helped stock for money at times. The ad on TV was "In 1952 Rinso Blue Makes Your Clothes White as You!" Now the funny part of all that the ad was on Amos N Andy Show which I have all of them on tape.
I always thought it was interesting that "Sambo" was considered anti-Black. It was a story about an Indian boy. They don't have tigers in Africa. Indians (from India) are considered to be Caucasians with dark skin, not Negroid people.
Related to that, and language Shirley. I had a friend who was head librarian for San Luis Obispo--county I think. He spent a fair amount of time in central and south America, and was fluent in Spanish. He went to see "Gone With The Wind" in Mexico I believe, with subtitles in English. When it came to Rhett Butler's final words to Scarlet, he said the famous line, "Frankly Scarlet, I just don't give a damn," was translated in the subtitles as, "Es verdadere Charlotta, no es importa." Which translates in English as--more or less--"Truthfully Scarlet, it's not important." Something definitely lost in translation there.
I think we have gone overboard, way overboard, regarding racism. It is as though we are continously looking for some reason to scream racism. It is becoming tiresome.
That's because you're White Men. Try reading Ellison, Baldwin, Malcolm X. I saw horrible examples of racism in my lifetime; black people our age had great-grandparents who were born slaves. This horror went on for hundreds of years and we can't expect it to settle down after only 50 years. It will take awhile. Do you think Jewish people will forget the Holocaust any time soon? Rhetorical question, as an example, requires no answers.
I am thinking that there are few if any, children of American slaves alive today. It is interesting too, that the United States is the place that everyone around the world points to when it comes to slavery since this ignores known facts. Most of those who came to North America were brought here prior to the formation of the United States as a country; hence, the blame for that belongs to the British. Far more slaves were transported to the Caribbean and South America than to North America. Most of the slaves taken from Africa were already slaves, and this is a practice that still exists in parts of Africa. Most of the slaves taken from Africa were enslaved by other African tribes, or by Muslims, both of whom continue to enslave people today. Most of the slave traders were English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Among the cruelest were the Portuguese and the Spanish. The British are credited with abolishing slave trading. This is true, but they didn't do so until after the United States achieved its independence. Just as an aside, the province of North Carolina passed a ban on the import of slaves to North Carolina in 1774.
I grew up in Paterson, New Jersey in the 19 40's which was and still is a racially & ethnically diverse area. I don't recall any strife among the different groups despite each group openly and without t malice calling members of the different groups by racial slang. Wops, Dago's, Kikes,Chinks, Spics. Spades, Jungle Bunnies. Hunkies & of course the N word.
When I worked at Hoerner-Waldorf, which later became Champion Paper, the atmosphere was similar, particularly on the graveyard shift. Since there were only about a dozen of us working 11-7, we got to know one another pretty well and no one took offense. Maybe that's what happens today - no one gets to know one another, so everyone has to be careful.
There is so much truth to this. People were abused many years ago - there is no denying that fact. However .. it's time that people who are DISTANTLY related to those who suffered the abuse stop using that as an excuse for bad behavior. Those who seem to yell the loudest were not the ones who lived through those times. They seem to want payment for something that DID NOT happen to them. They need to move forward .. never forgetting the history of the ancestors .. and make things better for themselves and their future generations. But for some reason they have decided that the world owes them. That mentality will never get them anywhere in life. It also will not right whatever wrongs were done to their ancestors. All they are doing is perpetuating a problem. It has gotten to such a ridiculous point that one can't blink the wrong way without someone calling that action racist. The actions of these people does ZERO to help their "cause". What is does do is keep them in the limelight and shows them as total jerks with no regard for themselves, their children or anyone else in this world. If they wanted to do something to improve their lives, they would get off of their dead butts .. go to work .. take care of things and themselves and stop being destructive. It's not going to be long before society says we have had enough of this destructive childish behavior and take matters into a direction nobody wants to see. Keep poking the hornets nest and stinging will happen.
I put a “like” on your post because it is indeed, thought worthy. There are still Jews around who were part of the Holocaust but whilst they may hate what happened in Germany by Germans, I doubt they hate all present day Germans. I was beat to near death by my dad as were many kids back in the day. Many kids grew up to a life of crime and to their defense, the lawyers and psychologists blame the way they were treated as children. On the other hand though, many like myself grew up to be productive and loving citizens and to that, the psychologists have little to say. Now, do I hate what happened? Yes. Am I against parents who treat their children badly? Yes. Do I hate parents? Certainly not! To say that a person of color has a psychological right to their hatred because of a past history of slavery is beyond the pale. Not one person is alive who physically remembers the slave days and I am sure no one’s grandparents were slaves either but yet, unlike myself in my younger circumstance or those actually in the holocaust, they are given a break for blaming slavery for criminal or hate filled actions. Certainly there are some racial tensions that do go on but that should be the product of how we treat each other today, not the product of how people treated each other a few generations ago. That is almost akin to hating the British for lording over the colonials and hanging one of my past relatives for fighting for freedom. Granted, I do not have any relatives that were in the Revolutionary war but still, I doubt if I could even muster a “dislike” if it did happen.
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were around in the 60s and their voices were for the wrongs 'still' going on Today - we are not talking 'distant' memories Racism is the most ridiculous form of hatred on this Earth and it is not 'they' who are perpetuating the problem either Maybe if you had witnessed your Mother or Father being hosed down, you would see things differently
Eloquent post, Patsy! Eloquent post, Bobby, but: "To say that a person of color has a psychological right to their hatred because of a past history of slavery is beyond the pale. Not one person is alive who physically remembers the slave days......." I didn't say or imply that, not sure where that comes from. I remember what happened to my grandma in Russia because she told me. My son also remembers as I told him. His son will know as my son will tell him his family story. I was actually speaking not of just inter-generational memories passed down, but especially to inter-generational poverty, poor quality education and lack of opportunity to build wealth. When I was a young girl, black people could not gain admittance, except as janitors and washroom attendents, in major department stores in New York City! A week before I was sixteen, the following occurred, the stuff of nightmares: We, my parents and I, were driving down to Miami Beach. We basically stuck to the old 301, my parents wanted to show me the intense poverty, but that's not the story I will tell you. In Walterboro, S. Carolina our car broke down. Water pump. While it was being fixed I fell asleep in the back seat. Woke up to the gas station mgr. giving our car a test drive. He was chatting in a lively fashion to me, then said, "Let me show you the fun things we do around here." He proceeded to gun the engine and go for a black kid on a bike, who nervously fell off, then the mgr. would swerve the car, so not to hit him. He laughed uproariously. He proceeded to repeat this two more times, one victim an elderly gentleman, wearing a suit, at all times laughing his head off. I was terrified, controlled myself and said nothing. He stopped doing this, drove the car back. It more than passed inspection, it was race car worthy. Who had the psychological hate that day? All of us, except the elderly man, are probably still alive today, or can be. I told my son this story, he will tell his son this story. The victims had a story, as well as the mgr. Hate is not the answer, as it burns up the hater. Like taking poison, wishing someone else dead. I was merely asking for patience and understanding, even if one can't accept. That's all, Patsy said it better.
YES - this is the thing. Parents, Grandparents will talk of their experiences. The child will take it all in as they then confront racism themselves and so it goes on. I remember reading the life of Sammy Davis Jnr - it was hard to read. In the army he was forced to the ground while white soldiers painted him white - how they laughed ! Sammy was good at hiding the hurt he must have felt during a huge part of his life. While a big star, he still had to use the 'workers' door to get to the stage and not allowed to sit at a table with Frank after the show, Frank sorted that one out ! Yep, no need to go back to the days of slavery - racism is alive right now !
Wonderful comment, @Bobby Cole! Think how much better off most of the slave descendants are than if they and their families had remained in Africa. Like immigrants who came here freely, many suffered to provide opportunities for their progeny. Slavery was a sad thing, but it provided a much better future for the descendants of slaves down the road.