Posted by ClearSkies on January 20, 2006, at 6:30:27
In reply to Can't we all just get along?, posted by TexasChic on January 17, 2006, at 20:36:08
I just got back from a short road trip up north, which is down South from where I live. I was totally discouraged by what I saw and heard. On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday holiday, I went to a museum on African American history in a prominent southern town. I was the sole visitor. This museum was located in a really rundown, depressed part of the city. Boarded up businesses interspersed with pawn shops. I was panhandled twice between getting from my car to the front door of the museum.
This isn't just about a city having a dying and broken downtown, or about homeless people looking at a promising visitor who might have an open wallet. I was trying to find a communion on that particular day, with other people, to honour the memory of an important civic leader. It was the first time since the holiday has been named that I didn't have to work during it. I wanted to be able to participate in celebrating MLK's contributions to American life.
Instead what I got was a lesson in apathy and yes, segregation. It was very upsetting to see how little anyone cared about commemorating the day. It's an illness in my daily experience that isn't talked about in anything but the vaguest terms. It doesn't ever get talked about here at Babble, either (thank you, TC for starting this thread). You know, I don't keep quiet about my views on racial prejudice; not any more. And I am soooo careful to keep my language civil (!).
But I'm kind of glad that N.O.'s mayor said what he did, even to retract it a day later, if only because he named the elephant in the room as an elephant.
poster:ClearSkies
thread:600165
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060115/msgs/600996.html