215 Comments

My mother, who was born and raised in East Texas, moved to Michigan before she had me. She wanted to go out with some of her co-workers, a mix of black and white employees, and recommended a particular restaurant that she liked. The black people said, "We can't go there. We don't get served there." My mother didn't believe them and insisted on going, anyway. Just as expected, they were absolutely ignored, and the staff refused to serve them.

That was in 1961 when people in the North were oh-so-upset about how the South was treating Freedom Riders.

But as my mother put it, at least the crackers in the South were honest about their hate, and not liars pretending to be something they weren't, unlike the North.

There was a reason that you could tell where a civil rights leader was from by how radical he or she was. The more radical and the more one talked about not compromising with the blue-eyed devils, the more likely the activist would be from OUTSIDE the South.

Expand full comment

My grandmother had some family who lived near Baton Rouge who explained the red stick meaning. It really is Native American in origin.

Expand full comment

As a matter of fact, they did ask if we needed a place to stay, if we were sticking around.

Expand full comment

But don't we all know that Black men are superhuman threats, with super-strength and flexibility? They can do things "ordinary" men can't. /s

Expand full comment

Check it out ... http://marktwainhouse.org/National Geographic says it is one of the top 10 best historical homes in the WORLD!

Expand full comment

There's a reason my beloved - a brown man - lit out of Baton Rouge as soon as he finished his master's.

Expand full comment

I wonder where I heard that. It made perfect sense and I know I've repeated it. What a dolt!

Expand full comment

Well that's right neighborly.

Expand full comment

Love them giraffes!

Expand full comment

Thanks; story has been updated. I should not be trusted with geography.

Expand full comment

Thanks; sorry to have not caught the comment sooner. Story has been updated and corrected -- basically, I got the location wrong two years ago when I wrote about the cop sending racist tweets, which happened the same week that Al Sharpton visited Baton Rouge to protest Victor White's death.

I should not be trusted with geography.

Expand full comment

I am a white Southerner. I am not a racist. My Mama taught us better than that. She would reach from her grave and snatch a knot in my neck if I said or did anything racist. I was "raised right", unlike my Senator, Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions.

Expand full comment

I guess my point is, I would LOVE to hear about some nice, genteel people from the South who do and say nice things, regardless of race, creed, or political affiliation.

I am just tired of hearing about all the dicks, like Sessions.

Peace.

Expand full comment

I think these upside the flamingo's head with a club cops are taking their town's name a bit too literal.

Expand full comment

And the whine.

Expand full comment

@proudgrampa- I believe they're only trying to prove Randy Newman was correct about LSU( located in Baton Rouge) in that song Rednecks.

Expand full comment