I too have a similar upbringing and am not what one would characterize as racist or prejudical regarding race... but although the word "nigger" is seen as outrageous in civil conversation, when this whole rioting and looting started in Ferguson and there was office conversation with one person asking "What are they trying to prove?", the only response I could offer is that regardless of word policing and political correctness... and it would probably get me in trouble here on FR... there is such a thing as a "nigger"... the looters proved that... and they happen to be black. I really wish I could post this without fearing that I am offending someone...it is what it is really... and it just seems that at some point someone has to stand up and say, "no, I am not going to be coy and refer to looters and gangbangers with alternative code words, like 'Amish', 'Thugz', "ferrels' or what-have-you. These inner-city criminals are simply... niggers"
I was raised to respect and treat blacks as equals and was taught about past transgressions.
= = = = = = = = = =
Likewise and I tried to instill the same standards in my Children and Grandchildren...Daughters were ‘fine’ with it - so to speak - just didn’t gripe about conditions when I was around and they seemed to have no problems with the children of work colleagues (including a couple of Black Guys (kids) I had worked with).
A little ‘dissent’ came from my eldest grandson (20 now) about how things were being ‘handled’ in school and when working in general..his brother (17) also seemed to have some ‘where did this attitude come from’ with the ‘reaction’ being, ‘You may be right, but YOU aren’t ‘forced’ to hang around with these guys all day every day’
Even recently when you notice how the ‘Whites’ mentioning (Whites aren’t ‘allowed’ to complain) Blacks in colleges (well where people spend a lot of money for their kids to hang out another 4 years) ‘they’ have ‘segregated’ themselves, - I used to muse how strange it must be for their parents and grandparents that had gotten the crap kicked out of them and ostracized because they wanted to (well it turns out the LIBS etal wanted) integrate.
There used to be a ‘translation’ for NAACP
“Niggahs(sic)
Aint
Always
Colored
People”
Sorry, today I am more wont to group ‘them’ all together, mainly because even the known dissenters, are somewhat quiet on this latest round and am sort of ‘forced’ to put them in the category of our “Peace Loving Religion” bros that refuse to take a FIRM STAND against the so called handful of ‘bad apples’ that give the rest of them a ‘bad name’.
According to the ‘Powers that be’.
Heard yesterday where a Rep from NYC (not sure whether he was Fed State or City) but he made some kind of statement ‘on the floor’ about how he didn’t know how to defend his son against ‘White Policeman’....Granted, it may be a valid statement in some circumstances but I can only imagine the ‘$hiite Storm’ that ANY white - male, female, straight, gay etc’ - would cause if they were to stand in a public forum (as an elected official) and say “I don’t know how to get my children ready for a world where they have to deal with Blacks (or Muslims) on a daily basis.
I was one of those (so called race traitors) that believed it was wrong for someone NOT being able to play baseball, drink from a fountain, and whatever transgressions that were laid upon the Black population as a whole JUST because they were Black.
I admit I was not alone and there were many that felt the same way but - in a sense and I will ‘Beat the Dead Horse’ and point to LBJ/Great Society - that the way some of the people are acting are seemingly proof that George Wallace (the OTHER G Wallace), Bull Connor, Orville Faubus etal may have been onto something....
The ‘Black Community’ is beginning to LOSE my support and what with the reaction to how the Government is ALLOWING this BS to take place - I notice the last few days in DC the ‘protestors’ have taken to blocking traffic in and around the ‘Chinatown’ area ... well last night 11PM news dutifully showed the ‘protestors’ and how disruptive they were being while RIGHT UP THE STREET - almost in view of the ‘trouble’ the local NBA team was beating Denver - I bring this up because my cynicism is saying that at least these guys know what faction of society they don’t want to disrupt..don’t let me or ‘force’ me to be late getting to work or going home BUT don’t make it ‘hard’ for the BROS to attend an NBA game....
Honest and decent folks were not referred to with either term. As children, we were taught to call our elders "Sir" and 'M'am", regardless, and refer to them as Mr. or Mrs/Miss.
It was indeed a different time.