Dear White Progressive Liberals, It's me Cordell and I have a dream

[Coolest Ranger]

Posted to the African American Group.

My name is Cordell Garrett and this is only my second time posting to the African American group. It is funny this group and the Barrack Obama Group are the only places on Democratic Underground that I feel safe in posting to. Just like Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream for my people when he lived back in the 1960s, I have a dream for the next generation of black people. So in the Vein of my favorite MSNBC host Dr. Melissa Harris Perry, I like to write you all a letter. Instead of getting mad at me and upset, please take a time to listen to my plea and try to convince those who hate us. Without further adieu, this post is what I like to call "The Letter"

Dear White Progressive Liberals, its me Cordell.

I am a person of color who has had a different experience then most of you. I was born and raised in North Carolina which is in the deep south in 1973. As a child growing up, I never once considered that there was evil in this world. I never once considered there were people out there that hated people who look like me. In fact, if I were to post my baby picture on here, you would swear to god that I was so light skinned that I could pass for white. As a child, I never gave it any thought why I was lighter in skin color than my older siblings. Two of them were a shade of brown while one of them could really almost pass for white. As far as I was concerned, they were my family who loved and protected me growing up.

Things changed when I was 11 years old. There is this small town in Bertie County called Askewville, North Carolina. Living in this town was my best friend Bobby, a white kid. We met in band camp and became best friends. We did everything together, we were fans of Transformers, fans of He-Man, fans of Voltron. He played the trumpet while I played the drums. We became so tight that he invited me to his house to meet his parents. I did just that, went to his house. Turns out that was the biggest mistake of my life. While his parents welcomed me into his house and I certainly felt comfortable being in his house, the people of the town of Askewville did not like seeing a slightly overweight, 11 year old nappy monkey in their town. They called the Sheriff's office on me and demanded that I never be allowed to come into their town ever again. That was my first real experience with racism. I was hurt and I couldn't understand why I could never go to my friends house. That didn't stop our friendship though, Bobby and I continued to be friends all during high school. But for some strange reason, Bobby and I never spoke about it again.

We both moved on with our lives. For the next twenty years I continued to work in several careers. I never could find anything that satisfied me. I then got a job working for a company in Louisville, Kentucky called High Speed Access corporation or HSA. That was my dream to work as a technical support analyst. It was a good job for the most part and I quickly became a favorite of people especially people out in the field who enjoyed talking to me. I developed a network of contacts I could go to if I need to get field support for anything. Then, one night, when we got slammed it was only two of us. Myself and one other guy whose name escapes me at the moment. But some guy from Georgia, I can't remember his name but he called back and I got him, the other guy was on the phone and we had over 100 calls in cue and it was just two of us. I tried helping him with his issue, but he got pissed off and called me a nigger to my face. I told him sir, I don't care what your problem is with your internet service, but I will not sit here and allow you to disrespect me like that. I made detailed notes about what he said to me and how vile and volatile he was towards me. Ten calls later, I got that same guy back and he continued going off on me, calling me a felon who should not have that job, a porch monkey who smells like something that comes out of his butt. He demanded to speak to a supervisor and I told him that there is no supervisor on duty that it's just me. He told me in so many words he was going to get my black monkey ass fired.

By the third call and yes he did call back a third time,he threatened my life saying that he was going to get his shot gun and come up to Louisville, Kentucky. I did not troubleshoot the third time he called back. I logged the threat in the database. I think I must have typed up about 15 pages of notes with what the customer said to me. By that time, the cue had calmed down and was quiet for the rest of the night. I remember thinking back on that night now as I type this and I started crying. I called up to the network operations center where my good friend Eric was working. I explained to him what was going on. He knew I was upset and that I was crying. He came down from the NOC and sat with me for an hour. I did not know this but he had disabled the guys account for me. He said that the way I had been treated was not right and that he was going to do everything in his power to get the guy's account removed as quickly as possible.

The city manager for the area called me the next day and was highly upset. This was a white woman. I can't remember her name mind you this was about 14 years ago when I worked at this company. She had a personal conversation with the customer. She took it upon herself to tell the customer she was personally terminating the account that I should have never been treated like that. But here's the injustice of that, my direct supervisor was a white guy name Phil. They wanted to take the customer side. When I found out, I was targeted for harassment by them. Phil and this other white supervisor made life difficult for me until I got a chance to go to work for their competition. There I was treated so much better.

I want my fellow white liberal progressives to understand something. People who have had everything to them can not possibly understand what we go though. There may be a few who have friends, loved ones and significant others who are people of color stopped and harassed by the police because you are with black people. That should be a wake up call that we have a serious issue going on in this country. There are people who look like you who think because they are white that we are supposed to bow down, kiss your butt and let things remain the way it is. Our young people do not see it like that.

So you may be asking yourself, why is it that our young people are getting so angry and upset with the system Let me drop some names on you for you to think about: Tamir Rice, Cameron Tillman, VonDerrit Myers Jr., Laquan McDonald, Carey Smith-Viramontes, Jeffrey Holden, Qusean Whitten, Miguel Benton, Dillon McGee, Levi Weaver, Karen Cifuentes, Sergio Ramos. These folks are all young black men that are being targeted for destruction by the police. As far as I am concerned, every candidate should be targeted until they let us know what they are going to do to protect us until this stops. Every white progressive should get behind us and be as vocal as the black lives matter crowd. Every white progressive should be as outraged as our young people are at how police kill us but when it comes to white individuals they use every tactic in the book to take them into custody.

Finally, if you can't understand why we are so angry with everyone. Sit back and try to imagine young white kids being targeted by the police. Imagine yourselves living in fear at having to go down the street to get errands done wondering if the police are going to stop you for being white. Imagine what could happen to you if you were taken from your homes and sold into slavery forced to work in a factor or a prison setting for 15 hours a day with little or no money. Then imagine if someone takes a whip to you and beats the living daylights for looking at someone wrong. I realize this is a complicated and long post, I do apologize for that. But as a black person and person of color, I am trying my hardest to educate you to stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about those of us who do not have the power base that you do. One day soon, you could wake up and there will be no people of color around because and I am being quite serious about this, we could all be wiped out and you'll wonder where are all the black people?

The answer will be, YOU KILLED US over our skin color. Think about that the next time you feel the need to attack black lives matter. Thank you. for listening to me.

Sincerely

Cordell Garrett

[clydefrand]

1. I'm a white anglo saxon, 80 years old.

When I was a child growing up in a small town in Virginia, I only knew
1 black person, a child about my age. We would play together, toss
baseball, etc. The was way before MLK. I know the blacks lived in
their part of town, and the whites in the rest of the town. I never heard any discussion about why this was. Later, I was in the Army
(basic training) and a black man was in my barracks right near my
bed. One Friday, we were given our first 3 day pass. I had no
plans, but this fellow asked around if he could borrow $20 just in
case he needed on his visit home. No one offered, so I said sure,
I'll loan you the 20. Well, my first taste of racisom - everyone around me said I never see him or the 20 because they figured he was
going AWOL. Well, Sunday evening he returned and the first thing
he did was to give me the 20 back. You could have hear a pin
drop in that barracks. For whatever reason, I was never in a place in
the Army that had blacks assigned to it. When I got out of army, the
MLK thing was just beginning and one day he and his brother were
discussing the subject. My dad asked him what he thought. He said
he didn't have a problem with them. My dad then asked what he would do if one of his daughters went out with a black. He answered
'I'd kill the sob'. (mind you, they did not use the term black either.)
Just never had occasion to work with or meet on a social basis
any other blacks - just the way it turned out.
TO THIS DAY, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY WHITES THINK THEY ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE BLACKS ARE.
I really liked your letter, but I wonder how many whites on DU
will bother to read it all. Bless.

[freshwest]

2. Thanks, Cordell, I know that is just a tiny bit of the experiences of black people in the USA.

You explained this very well and I appreciate your efforts here.

[Skidmore]

3. I hear you, and

Last edited Fri Aug 14, 2015, 09:29 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm so sorry. Thank you for taking the time to write your experiences. I am probably old enough to be your mother or perhaps your grandmother. I wrote a bit of my family story a couple of days ago here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7066968


I guess I want to add something to this that I should have written then. Those of us who are family members do understand the fear and pain because we share it with you. It is extremely painful to witness the pain and hateful behavior and words that our loved ones have endured. And there are many times we get a real taste of the hatred too in the glares of strangers and the stilted speech. Sometimes it is outright shaming, as happened to my niece recently when she took her newborn with her to the store and was lectured by an older woman about how shameful it was that she had this baby. This innocent child was a threat to her in what way? Sometimes we lose birth family contacts because we have chosen to follow our hearts. I have lost a brother this way. Sometimes we get the furnace blast of epithets. The latest one I have been called is "whigger." It does not hurt me anymore but it makes me angry.

What hurts me is when my husband and I go into a place of business and the salesperson tries to do conduct business with me only. My husband and I have a little routine we do to direct the person to his presence and the fact that we are a couple. If the person does not "get it" after a brief exchange, we take our business elsewhere. I refuse to engage with anyone who will not acknowledge his presence and extend the same respect or courtesy to him as they do me. He does the same for me too because I have had occasions when I experience the flip side of this. It does happen but not often.


I guess I just wanted to tell you that you are not alone, and that I agree with you. White progressives/liberals do need to step up. It's not enough to have a black person in your circle of casual friends or in the congregation at church or the classroom or as a colleague at work. It is not enough to mouth agreement with political positions and then not engage at a personal level in your life. I always come back to how can people not see the humanity of others. I so want people to see what I see in this good man with whom I have spent so many decades. And I want them to see the humanity of the people in the AA community. I want them to respect and acknowledge people in other venues. I want them to stand up as "allies" when it is needed and not when it is too late and there is another statistic to add to those harmed.

There is so much in my heart right now that cannot express adequately. The bit I have written has hopefully been put out there in words that can be taken in the way they are intended. Peace to you and yours. I'm so sorry that you have been hurt.

[Starry Messenger]

4. K&R

[mopinko]

5. it IS a matter of life and death.

old white lady here, but purposely raised my kids in the more diverse ward in the city. i do my best. my kids barely notice skin color. i am very proud of them.
but i know i dont really know.

i do know this, tho, i DO NOT have a problem w blm tactics. if it was our children getting gunned down, we'd have turned the whole place upside down by now.
trouble is, they are our children.

[Quayblue]

6. K&R

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I deliberately waited until lunch time

to kick and rec this

I just read it out loud to my husband (working from home today) You put a tear in his eye.

[brer cat]

8. Beautifully written, Cordell.

DU and our nation are filled with people who have no idea what many of our fellow citizens have endured. That is apparent by the reaction to BLM, the disrespect shown our President, and the countless lives lost to racists who have no decency or respect for human life.

Should be required reading on DU.

[nc4bo]

9. This wonderfully written post should be x-posted into GD, heck in newspapers, mags,

All over the internet, in every Democratic hidey hole out there. Very eloquent, passionate and deserves a round of

Thank you!

[Coolest Ranger]

15. I would do that

but I'm terrified that the haters will start targeting me and silence me like they have done so many others. I love this place but some folks here terrify me to death.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. K&R

Finally got chance to read it through. The hope is that others will be able to "see" and rustle up some empathy. But I think the concept of "empathy" has been drowned out by "expediency".

[Number23]

11. Thank you so much for this post, Cordell

And welcome to the AA forum. You are welcome here anytime.

[Cha]

12. Mahalo for your story growing up in the South, Cordell. I started crying when

I got to the part when you went to Askewville, North Carolina to visit your friend, Bobby, and meet his parents.

I was about the same age when I had a friend named Betty.. her Dad was African American and her Mom was White. They were fine with us hanging out together but my dad said I couldn't see her anymore because.. I don't really remember exactly what he said.. but, it was understood that it was because she wasn't like us.

I was heartbroken.. she was my friend. I pleaded with my Mom and she understood how awful it was for us not to be able to do things together. I ended up just saying I was somewhere else when I was at her house. But, of course, she could never come to mine.

We moved away from each other so long ago but I'll never forget how sad I was when I found out about "racism" in my home.

#BlackLivesMatter, Cordell. No "Buts".. Thom Hartmann had an excellent segment about it on his show.. Have you seen it?

Love you, Cordell, Coolest Ranger

[BainsBane]

13. Thank you for sharing this

and we all have a responsibility to make things better so that future generations do not have to go through what you did.

[lovemydog]

14. Hi Coolest Ranger.

Welcome here.

Thanks for your post!

[mcar]

16. Bless you for this letter Cordell

I wish you would post it in GD but I completely understand your hesitation.

[List left]

17. Thank you so much for sharing your story

I think it is only by sharing our stories, and taking the time to listen to each other, that it is possible to untangle the racist mess this country is in.

And... just to be clear...... NO story justifies racism.