I want to write more later, but something occurred to me the other day, and the parallel blew me away between Jews in WW2 and black Americans. Cell memory is something that amazes me. Jews who have visited the preserved concentration, work and death camps have been known to collapse and be overcome with grief. Because they can feel what went on there.
And my friends who are black, it must be awful to know people once enslaved your kin, worked them to death, imprisoned them, and gave them no dignity whatsoever. I cannot imagine that. Yet people wonder why there are so many angry people walking around. I mean, people still continue to see blacks that way, and it makes me sick. I�d be pissed too.
The Jews and the blacks also have had a hard time retracing their lineage. Unless you got papers, you don�t really have a family tree. Whole families and cities during the Holocaust were practically erased off the earth. Sometimes, one member would survive, only to go home and realize they were the only one who made it. I can�t imagine.
During slavery, I believe they often called the slaves by their first name. Big John, little John, male, female, child. Wow, not a whole lot of room for an identity there.
I sit and think a lot about race relations, racism, and hate in general. Since I�m alone a lot lately I delve into my own mind and explore my feelings and general impressions.
I�ve seen racism on all sides. I�ve been the victim of it. A target by people I went to school with and sometimes my family. I was made fun of for being a �tar� baby, a �Wetback� and an Oreo. This hurt very much. I find out many years later that I�m Apache and Blackfoot Indian and Dutch, but it can�t erase years of name calling by ignorant people.
I�ve seen the subtle occurrences in everyday life. Little things that happen, that all people don�t notice but I do because I�ve been there. The furtive glances, the whispering, the clutching of the purse. I always look at them and roll my eyes as to say, �Oh, please. As if�! I hope it really gets that bigot going.
I go to the store with my friend Ms. Terry, and I notice the salespeople keep an eye on her. I take my Godson to the store and I get funny looks. Ms. Terry takes my very Nordic looking daughter, her goddaughter, out with her and there�s always some lady just dying to ask if Jackie is really related. So Ms. Terry says, �She sure is my Granddaughter.� The person looks at my mahogany friend, and my blond haired blue eyed daughter and they are obviously confused, which we both find funny. We laugh about it.
Ignorance, indifference and outright hatred fuel racism. People sometimes don�t know enough or don�t care enough to challenge their own way of thinking. They are too wrapped up in themselves to examine others closely. Truthfully. Kindly.
Recently, I�ve become interested in the Holocaust again. I�ve seen the pictures, read the witness accounts, researched, but of course, I can never truly know what it was like for people of that time. I can never know the hurt their surviving ancestors feel. Something that has stood out to me though was the rhetoric and propaganda spewed out by the Nazi�s. They compared Jews to rats, lice, other vermin. They degraded them in so many ways, even said that Jewish children were just small beginnings of the treachery imposed on the Aryans by them so they must be dealt with. That a Jew would look you in the eye and lie. That they would steal from you. That they weren�t trustworthy. That they were scum. Never mind many of these people were highly educated and some very wealthy. Never mind even the poor were educated. Never mind that these people on the whole were devoutly religious and meek.
Never mind all the evidence to the contrary of this propaganda. People bought it because they wanted to blame somebody.
Now, I look at racism towards blacks (one of my friends who is black said her descendents did not come from Africa, they were from Haiti, so she asked that I consider all blacks don�t want to be considered African-American). I am saddened that it still continues today, and in case you doubt that, you might want to read about the segregated proms. I find that disgusting that any self-respecting citizen, city leader, school board member, even a self-proclaimed Christian would allow that. Um, don�t those people have a conscience? A moral compass?
Programs are put into place to help minorities excel, because the simple truth is, due to the complexities of our society and relations today, these people still struggle. When you go out you�re door; you are mostly likely a white person. You don�t notice it; you take it for granted.
When you are black, you are reminded of it often. In many ways. Think about it.
I�m sickened to hear people to this day who will insinuate that Black folks are opportunistic, two-faced or lazy. From what I know, my pale- as-the-moon friend sits on his fat butt and collects disability for what: being fat and always hurting himself cause he�s out of shape. And my white baby sis has three kids and receives state aid. My white mother received help from the Catholic Church and the government to help her raise us.
This is strange to me, as a rational human being, but the observations above are the sort of slanderous and dangerous things I�ve heard over the years about any minority; Cubans, Mexicans, African-Americans, Bosnians, Haitians.
I think, are these people that stupid? Why do they hate? Do they not know that life isn�t always a perfectly executed plan? That all of us get in a rut and need help? That there are hoodlums in every race? I mean it�s okay to be stupid, toothless, uneducated and criminal as long as you�re white. Meanwhile, if you�re a minority you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself. Stupid.
I guess what I�m saying is that this same sort of ignorance and hatred of other cultures and races lead to the brainwashing of the people and paved the way for the Holocaust. Seems like lots of people want to blame somebody for their troubles and not acknowledge their own.
Don�t hate somebody because of their color, their religion. Don�t like them because they�re a jerk, whatever, but don�t assume everyone is like them. When you hate others, you turn off your own blessings in life. You are so filled with hate that you miss your golden opportunities to make friends. Trust me.
11:21 a.m. - 2003-06-11
Recent entries:
What you missed - January 16, 2012
%%older_entries%%From hell - October 19, 2010
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