Reply #22: "...and SO well spoken!"

[MorningGlow]

Yeah, I got a million of 'em, mainly because most members of my immediate family are in their 70s and 80s. Racism to them is like breathing--they don't even notice they're doing it. When you call them on it, the look genuinely surprised and say "...What? What did I say?" I still remember reading my mother the riot act when she said "That's mighty white of you" in front of me. She had NO idea what the problem was. She said she always perceived it as "white" being "good and nice" and "black" being the opposite, sort of how we refer to "white magic" and "black magic". But still...that was exactly the point, wasn't it?

But what scares me more than that generation are the idiots of my own generation, their kids, who have adopted that inherent racism even though they know better. I had a sort-of friend, a former coworker, who visited my city to interview for a job. I helped her get a room at a nice hotel, and when she arrived, I picked her up and took her out to dinner and drove her around the school district she was going to be interviewing at. Her one question: "Are there, you know, black people in this district?" She was in her late 20s when she said that. I doubt she's changed much in the past 17 years. Bet she's not voting for Obama.