Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
Now, another thing. Why do we always hear about the horror stories of the slaves? Were they all raped and abused by their slave owners? NO. Read uncle Tom's cabin. Read God's and Generals. Some slaves actually liked their owners. Not all were django unchained.
What part of Arkansas were you in? I don't notice any overt racism in this part of Arkansas (western Arkansas, river valley region). When it happens, it's usually older, pre desegregation folks who say those things.
No, that's not what I'm saying. I am not against emancipation, I just think that all we ever hear about are the horror stories.Wow, wow, wow. What are you even saying here? That because some slaveowners treated their slaves kindly, it wasn't always a horrible injustice to deny someone the rights of personhood?
No, that's not what I'm saying. I am not against emancipation, I just think that all we ever hear about are the horror stories.
I spent last week in Arkansas for work. I had never spent much time in the south outside of large cities before. I was apalled at how much overt racism there is by whites against blacks in 2013. Call me naive, but I had no idea that things were still as bad as I observed.
No, that's not what I'm saying. I am not against emancipation, I just think that all we ever hear about are the horror stories.
A friend was taking a motorcycle drive up and down the coast with her dad as a graduation present. They stopped at a gas station/diner to eat and fill up in West Virginia. They sat down everyone was very friendly and at one point as part of a conversation someone at the counter asked them who they disliked more and gave them the choice of two ethnic groups by the slurs for them.
People sat around as if it was a normal question, they thought it was a joke until all the locals there started debating what made each group worse.
Thankfully it was close to the end of the meal and they were able to extricate themselves and leave rather quickly.
That sort of thing just doesn't happen here. There is certainly quiet racism - the kind that has people hoping their new neighbors aren't black and things like that...but if you opened your mouth in public with racial slurs and the sort of hate that comes with it in public, you would find a line of people ready to tell you what a waste of oxygen you are.
MikeK said:Little Rock and Sheridan. It was youngish blue-color whites doing the talking, in the courtyard outside the hotel bar (in LR of course - Sheridan is dry. Freedom-haters).
MikeK said:That sort of thing just doesn't happen here. There is certainly quiet racism - the kind that has people hoping their new neighbors aren't black and things like that...but if you opened your mouth in public with racial slurs and the sort of hate that comes with it in public, you would find a line of people ready to tell you what a waste of oxygen you are.
MikeK said:I wish it would have dawned on me that you lived in Arkansas. I'll be going back in Fall, I'll pick up the tab if you want to grab dinner and some coktails.
Here is my opinion in the words of Joe Scarborough over at Politico:
"I am angry that George Zimmerman could chase a teenager through his neighborhood, ignore a dispatcher’s pleas, make racially charged statements, provoke a confrontation with a young man armed only with Skittles, and pull the trigger that ended that teenager’s life, only to walk away without as much as a misdemeanor attached to his name. But I also know that the laws of Florida favored the defense, that the prosecution overreached in its efforts to convict Zimmerman on a second-degree murder charge, and that we will never know which man was screaming for help in the moments that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. I also know that it is a fool’s errand to second-guess the conclusions of a jury that sat through countless hours of testimony and evidence before reaching a verdict."
This was probably the right verdict, but it's a sad one. Praying
Nor can I, but I wonder about the proportion of people who were treated well and those who weren't. I want to know the truth of it, not what happened in the minority of cases. It was horrible what was done to them, to be sure. But I think what happened in Rwanda what some short 20 years ago? was far more disturbing and we didn't even get involved but to a small extent. You want to know who helped them of all people? The French.But they're all horror stories. Even if a slave was treated with kindness and respect, it's a horrible thing to be someone else's property your entire life, and I can't imagine my life being like that.
MikeK said:Are those near Hot Springs? I'd like to go there.
I'll go anywhere but Pine Bluff, blacks and whites alike told me to avoid Pine Bluff in my random after-work explorations.
A pimp once asked me to get into his car after dark. I was 14. and yes he was black. Not that all pimps are. I had the good sense to run.How often have you offered ex black teenaged strangers rides after dark, AMDG?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?