For many African Americans, the southern states still evoke nights filled with scents of magnolia blossoms, the burnings of lawn crosses, and the lynchings our families suffered. The “heritage not hate” crowd seems to think that black people forgot exactly what that heritage was really about: Hate & Slavery. Of black people. We did not forget. And why did they need to monumentalize their "heritage" in the form of statues of old white supremacists who fucking lost lost lost the Civil War? To scare black people into quiet submission? To remind us of our place so we'd stop getting all uppity? Yep, pretty much.
While also instituting Jim Crow in the North. My grandparents moved from the segregated South to the segregated North. I was surprised to see a few years back in the NY Times Magazine something my mother told me about: in her childhood, the beach at Asbury Park was segregated. Yes, the ocean had a whites only sign on it.
Several years ago I attended a great conference at the Smithsonian on "Slavery: History and Memory," which included recordings of slaves that had been made during the WPA era. Clearly, the numbers of former slaves were few so there was a push to get their stories out there.
When my parents brought a home on the south shore of Long Island in 1964, they were told “No coloreds will ever move here because any realtor who sold them a house would never sell another one again”. They never told me to what extent that was the deciding factor for them. To this day, that community is something like 97% white. There were no Jim Crow laws- there didn’t need to be.
Covenants were the equivalent though. As were sundown towns, effectively. When my mother went to see her guidance counselor, she told her he would be either a domestic or a factory worker. Years later, my mother had a friend who was born in 1907 (she used to refer to my grandmother as a kid because of the 5-year seniority!) who talked about buying her house in NYC through a white friend. As in giving him money and it was in his name. They were not greeted warmly but by a young white boy, who did welcome them to the neighborhood and used to visit with them over the years.
I fully expected the picture at the top to be of a lynching. I took an ethnic lit class in college, and the instructor showed us one such picture...white families picnicking at the foot of the tree with a black man's body hanging from a branch. That's some heritage all right.
I was just thinking about this (from the other direction) yesterday. I was waiting at the ATM for the (white) woman ahead of me to finish her transaction. Her companion was a black man. I found myself thinking how different our experiences of America must be. OTOH, as the child of a single mother and a woman myself, I identify more strongly with people of my class, rather than my race.
Yes it was. Jefferson’s son in law kept Sally’s niece Betsy after his wife Jefferson’s daughter died as his enslaved “mistress.” In fact she is buried with him (at his request honored by his children). His second wife was quite upset about it. She was buried in their married daughter’s family cemetery.
Don't fall for the 'they lynched whites too' shit.
Lynchings in frontier states happened as the law was still catching up with the large movement of people into open territory (excluding natives). Not the same as in the established Southern States who already had stuff like 'slave patrols' and 'sundown towns' and huge economies based on making sure that the cheap labour stayed in place.
Well now, I can address this as a white person. I can assure you all the nastiness was highly glossed over when I was growing up and it wasn't until I went to college and had a black roommate and started reading up on that history that I realized "Holy shit, this is really bad."
Because it hurts our image of ourselves as brave, compassionate and humane.
That is why the museum in Alabama is important - if we are to become brave, compassionate and humane we must visit the museum (and other historical sites connected to white exploitation of people of colour [including Aboriginal people]) confront our past, acknowledge the wrongs truthfully - and genuinely try for reconciliation with those we have wronged. In so doing we heal ourselves, too.
"Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
While also instituting Jim Crow in the North. My grandparents moved from the segregated South to the segregated North. I was surprised to see a few years back in the NY Times Magazine something my mother told me about: in her childhood, the beach at Asbury Park was segregated. Yes, the ocean had a whites only sign on it.
Several years ago I attended a great conference at the Smithsonian on "Slavery: History and Memory," which included recordings of slaves that had been made during the WPA era. Clearly, the numbers of former slaves were few so there was a push to get their stories out there.
I don't know that many were on the low. Social events. Whole families. Body parts taken as souvenirs. Postcards made.
Sally's father was Jefferson's father-in law. Perhaps the family was twisted like that?
When my parents brought a home on the south shore of Long Island in 1964, they were told “No coloreds will ever move here because any realtor who sold them a house would never sell another one again”. They never told me to what extent that was the deciding factor for them. To this day, that community is something like 97% white. There were no Jim Crow laws- there didn’t need to be.
Covenants were the equivalent though. As were sundown towns, effectively. When my mother went to see her guidance counselor, she told her he would be either a domestic or a factory worker. Years later, my mother had a friend who was born in 1907 (she used to refer to my grandmother as a kid because of the 5-year seniority!) who talked about buying her house in NYC through a white friend. As in giving him money and it was in his name. They were not greeted warmly but by a young white boy, who did welcome them to the neighborhood and used to visit with them over the years.
I fully expected the picture at the top to be of a lynching. I took an ethnic lit class in college, and the instructor showed us one such picture...white families picnicking at the foot of the tree with a black man's body hanging from a branch. That's some heritage all right.
I was just thinking about this (from the other direction) yesterday. I was waiting at the ATM for the (white) woman ahead of me to finish her transaction. Her companion was a black man. I found myself thinking how different our experiences of America must be. OTOH, as the child of a single mother and a woman myself, I identify more strongly with people of my class, rather than my race.
Nazis are the best villains. They pretty much went after errbody, so the only people who like them are other Nazis.
Probably not great.
Yes it was. Jefferson’s son in law kept Sally’s niece Betsy after his wife Jefferson’s daughter died as his enslaved “mistress.” In fact she is buried with him (at his request honored by his children). His second wife was quite upset about it. She was buried in their married daughter’s family cemetery.
Don't fall for the 'they lynched whites too' shit.
Lynchings in frontier states happened as the law was still catching up with the large movement of people into open territory (excluding natives). Not the same as in the established Southern States who already had stuff like 'slave patrols' and 'sundown towns' and huge economies based on making sure that the cheap labour stayed in place.
Google/Wikipedia can be your friend.
I like your avatar. Especially his keyboard. Oops, that is a different Dvorak.
Well now, I can address this as a white person. I can assure you all the nastiness was highly glossed over when I was growing up and it wasn't until I went to college and had a black roommate and started reading up on that history that I realized "Holy shit, this is really bad."
Because it hurts our image of ourselves as brave, compassionate and humane.
That is why the museum in Alabama is important - if we are to become brave, compassionate and humane we must visit the museum (and other historical sites connected to white exploitation of people of colour [including Aboriginal people]) confront our past, acknowledge the wrongs truthfully - and genuinely try for reconciliation with those we have wronged. In so doing we heal ourselves, too.
"Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu