I was born February 23, 1961, which meant the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy was just a month old and the civil rights movement was still pretty much in its infancy. My first awareness of the radical changes happening was with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968.
Even then, the only reason it came to my attention was due to a family vacation in Washington D.C. in May of that year. I have memories of hearing snatches of long distance conversations between my father and the friend we were supposed to be visiting debating the wisdom of the trip.
As with most of my childhood, I retain only brief glimpses of what happened during that trip: The Lincoln Memorial, The Smithsonian Institution, plumes of smoke over the downtown core where fires from riots weeks old still smouldered, seeing more black people on the streets than I had ever seen before, and being told not to bother locking car doors because "it would only make them angry."
I had been told that President Lincoln had abolished slavery, and looking around at what I considered the vast numbers of black people, I had asked my mother if he had gotten elected because all the black people had voted for him. She said no, not bothering to explain in those days most blacks wouldn't have been able to vote anyway, and said that black people were a minority of the population. Even if they all had voted for Mr. Lincoln, she said, it wouldn't have been enough on its own to elect him.
A seven-year-old child sees what's in front of him and doesn't think of anything else. Coming from Toronto of the 1960s, with a population of less than 500,000, and very few visible minorities, the visual evidence of Washington D.C. was of a country populated predominantly by black people. I don't know what the actual demographics of Washington are, or were back then, but I'm sure there wasn't the black majority I imagined.
Friends of my mother's had been part of a contingent of young Canadians who had gone down to take part in the Freedom Rides of the early sixties. So she had some first hand accounts to draw upon to help me understand the struggle that had been taking place in the country next to us while I had been learning how to walk.
Article comments
1 - Michael J. West
This is a beautifully written and insightful piece but I'm just not certain that I see it in such extremes.
Call me a hopeless idealist, but I simply don't believe that if the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were reversed tomorrow that the entire Southern U.S. would immediately backslide into Jim Crow.
Some places would, but I firmly believe, as a Clinton-loving liberal who grew up in the South, that they would be surprisingly few. And yes, far between.
Too many of us white boys have grown up in a world where we sat in the same restaurants and tables with people of color; where we didn't expect or even want anyone to give up their seat on the bus for us; where we were neighbors and friends and lovers and even competitors with those of other ethnicities. I don't believe for a second that we would rescind those rights if given the chance.
The struggle for civil rights is one of hearts and minds, and believe it or not, we who believe in equality have won quite a few of them. We're nowhere near finished--God, have we got a long way to go--but to claim we've made absolutely no progress in the last four decades, that's just wrong.
African Americans can grow up to be Secretary of State! National Security Advisor! Senators! Astronauts! Nobel Prize winners! Multimillionaire businessmen! These things were unheard of in this country not so long ago. There are reactionary forces but they will not stamp out progress, as long as people keep fighting for it.
Sorry, Gypsyman...I don't deny that progress is slow and tedious, at times maddening and disheartening and almost despairing, but it's been made and is still being made. But to say that no progress has been made at all is no more true than to say that the mission is completely accomplished. And frankly it's a cause for hopelessness: if we're not a single step closer to the Promised Land today than we were that day in Memphis, there's little reason to believe we'll be any closer in the next forty years, either.
2 - Bing
As Michael points out "African Americans can grow up to be Secretary of State and National Security Advisor."
Then they get to be called "Uncle Tom," "Oreo," "race traitor," and other names by many "Clinton loving liberals because they aren't left wing liberals.
If we haven't gotten any closer to Dr. King's dream it's surely because of the approach that Democrats and liberals have taken.
To begin with it was Republicans who voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in much high percentages than the Democrats, who tried to filibuster.
Ever since then it has been, (i'm sorry Hillary but you're wrong) Democrats who have kept blacks on the plantation, not Republicans. Democrats and liberals have stamped "victim" on blacks with permanent ink. Democrats and white liberals have basically taken the stance that without help from the Democratic party all a black person can ever be is a victim or if they succeed as a Republican or a conservative then "they aren't really black." Democrats and liberals will label all Republicans and conservatives "racists" at the drop of a hat but it is they who expect an individual to hold certain political and social beliefs for no other reason than that person belongs to a certain race and then make racial slurs if that person does not hold those certain beliefs (ie. blacks must be liberal Democrats). I can't think of anything more racist than this but it is definitely representative of a large portion of American liberals today.
I wonder what Dr. King would think of these modern day liberals who treat African Americans in such a way.
3 - Andy Marsh
I don't want you to take offense to this...but is this a US history lesson...given by a Canadian?
Something tells me...I'm gonna be called an ugly american again pretty soon.
4 - zingzing
bing... did you hear michael call anyone an "uncle tom," etc.? no, you didn't. you are so far off base here that it's not even funny. i know far more liberals than i do conservatives, and i've never heard one of them make a racist remark. growing up in a red state, i heard plenty. now, it's not a large enough sample to make any quick judgements (a la... you...), in asking these bigots what their other political leanings were, it was quite clear that most of them, not all, but most, were conservatives and republicans.
the modern day "black" is certainly the homosexual, who is denied basic rights that you and i take for granted. why is it that republicans consistently block legislation designed to give them equal protection under the law? it's bigotry at its most blatant. disgusting.
5 - brian
UGLY AMERICAN!!!
6 - Andy Marsh
Thank you...
7 - Bing
Once again you take stupidity to new heights zing.
The Democrats are the true racists, taking the black viote for granted as if they owned the minds of blacl people. Do you not think that it was incredibly condescending for Hillary to refer to the House of Reps as a "plantation" in front of a crowd of black people Zing?
NO liberals call black Republicans/conservatives racial slurs? Well how about the recnt example of Leuitenant Governor of Maryland Michael Steele. When he recently got elected there were numerous left wing blog sites calling him thngs like Oreo, Little black Sambo, and unle tom. How's that for being a tolerant, enlightened leftists zing. Also you give anecdotal evidence of people you have heard. Well speaking for myself I have heard many liberals say that any black who votes gop is a traitor to thier race and other similiar comments.
Minorities are nothing but a pawn to liberals to show the rest of the world how "tolerant" how "diverse" and how "caring" they are. But it's all bullshit. Liberals and Democrats obviously don't respect minorities at all. This can be seen in how they approach them. Every time a liberal Democrat talks to minorities all they say is ooohhh watch out for those racist Republicans...and "all republicans are is a bunch of racists who want to keep minorities down."
If this bullshit were true then how do you explain the fact that president Bush has appointed more minorities within his administration than any other president in history, including the left wing hero Clinton? HOw do you acccount for that Zing? This doesn't seem to fit into your Republicans are racists argument. Can you please explain it?
Also how do you explain the fact that every year less blacks are voting Dem and more are voting Republican Zing?
Last time I checked the Dems are the ones who had a former Klu Klux Klan member representing them in Congress not the Republicans Zing.
Why is it ok for Hillary to make racists statements but not Trentt Lott Zing?
8 - gypsyman
It's not okay for anybody to make a racist comment.
gypsyman
9 - zingzing
you try to paint all democrats as racists. i simply point out that that's not true, because, let's face it, most people are not racists. my anecodotal evidence is just that. i was only pointing out that i know plenty of democrats that aren't racist. then again, i don't really hang out with racists. the ones i have run across have almost always been conservatives. it's almost like it's a part of being conservative... tolerance is not on the agenda... of course, that's not true, is it? i'm asking. but, i know where you stand on gay rights.
i actually haven't really spoken about any politicians racist comments. i won't mention trent lott, and i won't mention hillary. to answer your question, no, she shouldn't have said what she said. like gypsyman says, it's not okay for anyone to say, republican or democrat.
your michael steele example is akin to me bringing up the england's national front as an example of right wing racism. it's not an example of what real liberals stand for, bing, and you fucking know it. so cut the crap.
actually, the general trend among black voters over the past 30 years has been to no identify with any political party. sure, they have left the democratic party consistently. and there have been more blacks voting republican, but most who aren't identifying themselves with the democratic party don't wish to identify with any political party. if the republican party has gained any black votes during the past couple of elections, you can attribute that to their increasing religious slant, and the fact that they are against gay marriage... sadly, a majority of black voters are also against it. also there is the death penalty, which, despite the fact that it punishes far more black people than white people, blacks continue to support. it has less to do with democratic racism, and more to do with issues. so that's how i explain it.
you say that liberals and democrats obviously don't respect minorities? i respect minorities... i know plenty of liberals and democrats who do... i think it's pretty obvious that most liberals and democrats respect minorities, so again, cut the crap.
"Every time a liberal Democrat talks to minorities all they say is ooohhh watch out for those racist Republicans..." yes, bing, that's what they say every time. stop it. you're just bullshitting. how the hell would anything get done if that's all we had to say? fuck off.
i applaud bush's appointments of minorities to high positions. i just wonder about his motivations... maybe there isn't a motivation behind it, but he's a snarky little shit about so much other stuff...
so, to sum up, intolerance is a conservative value, no politician should get away with racist bullshit, you throw out red herrings as examples, cut the crap, blacks are just as intolerant as whites and that's why they vote republican (but not really that many of them), fuck off, and bush's appointments of minorities is commendable, if fishy.
10 - Bing
MMM intolerance is a conservative value and unbelievable hypocrisy is a liberal value.
11 - zingzing
where's the hypocrisy?
12 - zingzing
...and i'm not really saying that intolerance is a conservative value. that last paragraph is pretty sarcastic in it's own way. it just seems that intolerance and conservatism often go hand in hand. or that intolerant people are usually conservatives.
13 - Boom
The Civil Rights movement is over. I had to pay full price for College while my good African American buddy paid half that and I had better scores on my ACTs. Its all good, we laughed about it a bunch, what can you do. Stop crying about it and let Racism die. If Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson didnt make such a big damn deal about it, and keep bringing it back up it would disappear. Blacks kill more of them selves each year then the White man ever did. Give it a rest for god sakes, the Civil rights movement worked with flying colors. I think they dont like it if they cant pretend they are the victim anymore.
14 - brii brii
bush sucks okay so zing zing u shut up =]