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In reply to the discussion: Prejudice against whites is not the same as prejudice against blacks [View all]Ecumenist
(6,086 posts)what they were, (are?). He grew up in west Texas and told me how when anyone who was black who was walking on the sidewalk had to lower their eyes and step off the walk if a white person was walking toward them. He told me about seeing and smelling charred, rotting bodies in 1930's Texas; of being called "boy" even though he was a man in his mid 20's.
I listened as he recounted memories of "nightriders" terrorising and murdering black families, often buring their homes to the ground. Even though there is a HORRIFIC history of vicious racism that people of color, (AND IRISH AND ITALIAN in some regions of the country, not to mention Jews), it still DOES NOT excuse the bigotry you experienced at the hands, mouths and minds of those black folks you knew in Philly.
We can't keep this up. We have to work to get past this because it will destroy us if we don't.