I’m sure what Mihael Jordan says about his youth is true. He did, however; forget to mention that the KKK was an off-spring of the Democrat Party. I don’t think he was taking a shot at religion with the Bible comment. He was just saying the Klan was part of the fabric of the community...buying uniforms for the kids, running the chamber of commerce, bying bibles, etc. It’s an ugly past.
I was raised in Oakland, myself. I’m white, but about half the kids in my schools were black. I was afraid of some of them, but so were most of the black kids. A bad person is a bad person. We had Martin Luter King Jr Birthday off way before it ever became a holiday. Race meant nothing to me or my classmates until puberty hit. Then, it seemed to hang over us...for reasons that no one could really explain. Still, basically everyone was very friendly. Oakland is very good that way....despite what you might read....well west Oakland was no place to go at night, but it’s getting better nowadays.
Anyway, the only bad experience I had was during the week the mini-series Roots was on—1977. The day after Kunte Kinte got his foot cut off was really intense. When walking home from 6th grade, I had to avoid the Junior High kids because they were mad at the white studnets. I got mad in return because I related to Kunte Kinte as much as anyone, I felt. Random anger directed at good people seemed mean-spirited and ugly to me.
That was the day I was first introduced to what I call, “Black Anger.” This is the black philosophy of embracing victim-hood and holding onto anger against people who died years and years ago and not about solving problems. Some of my best friends got caught up in it. One of my buddies who grew up just down the street is one of those stem-winding preachers in East Oakland embracing the rage. I, having grown up in the exact same environment, went to College. I looked for the success. He looked for anger. We both found exactly what we were looking for....
i can relate... i was raised in San Jose, CA... while the black/white/Latino ratio was not what it was in Oakland, we still had a good mix of race and ethnicity... and yes--once 7th-8th grade came along, kids started breaking off into groups, more or less... it baffled me... i did not really fit into any group... my family was not about La Raza and such... and just about all the black friends i had all through elementary school split off... i ended up hanging out with an ethnically and racially mixed group of nerdy-types--bookworms... i was still friendly with all the others, but just no longer hung out with them...
Pointing that out is by no means is a defense of slavery. Even some of our founding fathers knew the issue was going to eventually damn this nation. (Read the journals of John Adams for some eye-opening insights from a brilliant man.) That also doesn't mean the incidents depicted in Roots did not happen somewhere. It just means that Haley's story was untrue. And his lies stirred up an entire hornets nest in the 70s that we now see resurfacing with Barack Obama. Who is making money off the unrest this time around? I think we know the answer to that.