Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE ยป

I Experienced Racism

Or Rather I Didn't... I didn't experience it that much compared to what you'd think.
I have been around since the 70s and have always lived in "new south" but I didn't know how bad discrimination could get until I went to visit NORTHERN cities. I know discrimination CAN get worse than what I saw, but I, of course, wouldn't want it to. See the south was forced to desegregate, but NO ONE was checking on Baltimore, NYC, Philly, Boston...
I grew up in a south without segregated cities, I grew up with friends of every race and no one had a big problem with it.
...while in the above northern towns there are definite neighborhood separations and people wouldn't think about "letting' someone in their family or friends group cross those lines of dating or even friends. In Baltimore it was so bad that I found white neighborhoods that were segregated by TYPE of white person, and you couldn't THINK about marrying on the next hill over because them Greeks is bad news, to the Polish-German neighborhood. Really, it made me question if there is really something wrong with white people that MAKES them divide people up.
More than a time or 2 people assumed that b/c I grew up in the South, that I'd be a racist, and to my understanding assuming too much is kinda the basis of most racism. I didn't really even understand my parents to be racists until I was in my 30s, and I wondered how they, as racists, didn't raise a more racist person, but I'm glad they didn't. I think they just kept it to themselves more when I was growing up, which tells me they know it's wrong.

[b][c=#003BB2]when I posted that in 2012 i got the following comments.[/c][/b]

3 Responses
thanks for sharing your story. I grew up in the south and didnt know racism until i went up north. I was in for a culture shock on how open it was in the small town..
by misery22

thanks for sharing this. ive lived in the south my entire life and have most definatly experienced racism as my husband and kids are not white. thank God, mama didnt raise me to have a hateful, racist heart. Thank you mama! =)
by kayblue
to which I said; Thanks for commenting. Now don't get me wrong it's not that i never saw ANY racism rear it's ugly head, but I saw little compared to what I beheld when I visited up North. I am sorry that you have had to see it in your situation because the way I see it, you are one who has done your best to put that archaic world on the shelf. Strength be to you.

 
Post Comment