Posted on 03/01/2005 11:55:14 AM PST by WKB
OSCAR nominee MORGAN FREEMAN has discovered why he loves his home state of Mississippi so much - it's less racist than most other places in America.
The actor grew up in racial segregation in the Delta region, which was once considered the heartland of American racism, but he insists he never felt oppression until he moved away.
And now he has fond memories of his childhood, despite the fact he wasn't allowed to attend certain clubs and had to sit on the balcony of his local cinema because only whites were allowed downstairs.
He says, "It can't bother you if that's the way life is. If you were raised up in Africa and you ate worms it wouldn't bother you, would it? Same thing.
"I wasn't thinking about rising up and going up to the Paramount and demanding to be let in to the ground floor. I just wanted to go to the movies."
Freeman admits he once dreamed of getting far away from Mississippi, but now he lives there and owns a blues bar and restaurant in Clarksdale.
He admits the state is still one of the most friendly places on earth, despite it's dubious reputation.
He adds, "I grew up in a segregated society that was purposely, obviously, openly segregated. I wasn't given any BS about anything else and I went up to the north and you see it and it's insidious... You want to think you're free-er but you're not."
I rember watching Electric Company.. Did not know he was in it..
Ditto. How could you not love the chauffeur?
He's also so stoically regal, you have no problem buying him as POTUS in "Deep Impact".
Even sadder...I'm TOO old to have been watching The Electric Company.
I go back to Ding Dong School. :o)
That was a good part..
Morgan is one of the best, and he gives the lie and speaks the truth in this age of the forced dichotomy between the RED states, and the BLUE states, that there is STILL more of the racist spirit active in the "Progressive" North and Northeast, and probably many other places, than the South.
The North has for too long rested on its laurels , and accumulated unearned points simply because it was NOT the South.This is a complex and fascinating subject, and too much to go into now, but let's just assume that things are better in the South, attitude-wise, and in practical terms, for Blacks, precisely BECAUSE there was such a painful tradition of first and second class citizenship, and so much blood was shed to rectify it.
My older boy used to watch 'Electric Company', during the early 1970s....he loved Morgan Freeman even then...he always used to laugh at that 'big black guy with the big Afro', as he used to call him...
Freeman has got to be one of the best actors around...I was so glad to see him finally get the Academy Award....even when he is in a movie that is not that good, his own performnces always stand out...
Sorry....Morgan
The South had nothing to beat the anti bussing riots in that bastion of liberalism; Boston. We had riots in Newark and Camden too. The South will have Bull Connor and George Wallace and massive resistance shoved down our throats forever but we know the real score.
Joan Rivers was the narrator for the Spider man skits
I first remember him in STREET SMART with Chris Reeve.
Umm...Bob Byrd is a from a Red State....West Virginia went for Bush in both 2000 and 2004
First thing I saw him in was the old TV show "The Electric Company," where he played Easy Reader.
I've noticed a pattern to H'wood's civil rights movies. Whenever the present day relationship between the races seems to be for all practical purposes peaceful and placid, H'wood comes out with another movie in the Mississippi Burning genre and rubs salt in the old wounds again. But even H'wood's influence in such matters is waning fast. The generation of the Civil Rights warriors is dying off and being replaced by young people whose outlook on race relations is much more in tune with God's own plan. Just look at the Old Testament story of Moses' Ethiopian wife and his brother Aaron and sister-in-law Miriam. The future of MS is bright and prosperous and the race problems of the past will soon be just a page in the ongoing history of The South..............
Yeah, but when Byrd was elected "Senator for life," which is what I was referring to, it was as blue as blue could be.
From USINFO.STATE.GOV:
Until the 2000 presidential election, West Virginia had voted Republican in only three of the last 18 presidential elections: 1956, 1972, and 1984, all elections that featured Republican incumbents.
So although you're right in the current state of the state, I was right in the historic sense.
(did I weasel out of that screw up OK?) ;^>
Sorry....Morgan
I figgered that.
Good for Freeman. I will soon be moving to Mississippi for retirement. I grew up on the Mississippi River right at the Kentucky and Tennessee borders a long time ago. Have lived in the Washington D.C. area too long and can't wait to get back home. Or near home at least.
I agree, and then they load it up with big name stars and people will go see the movie just for them. It's sad.
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