Thursday, August 11, 2011




Alyssa Rosenberg continues in The Atlantic with her sharp observation that:


















Chris Sharp said...

CD: I think I'll skip that movie but, dusting off my history books once again (actually they never get dusty), this sounds like an updated version of the "Lost Cause" movement after the civil war. Only this time its the 21st century white liberals trying to rewrite history instead of the defeated Confederates, so they can distance themselves from their collective guilt about being white and some of those laws you printed. You could probably fill a few books with them if you could do the national research, and some of them are alot worse.

If you think segregation ended after the Civil Rights movement, I invite you to come down to Florida. Several years back, I read a story in the Tallahassee paper about a black Maryland Congresssman (maybe Elijah Cummings) who was in Tallahassee on business and who wanted to have a drink on a Sunday afternoon. Since Tallahassee is dry on Sundays, they went down to a little town called Perry about 35 miles away. Lo and behold, the only bar that was open on Sunday was the Perry Package Store, which just happended to be segregated even in the late 1990's.

I couldn't belive the story when I read it so the next time I passed through Perry on my Harley, we stopped in the Perry Package Store for a cold one. I'll be damned if it wasn't segregated just like the newspaper said. It was pretty shocking to see and for a very brief millisecond, it made me embarassed to be white. (I really hate when that happens)

Instead of staying on the white side and silently feeling guilty, I went to the back room and drank with the brothers. I'm sure I had more fun hanging with them that I would have with the white crackers out front. Luckily I don't live in Perry because the white folks in the front room did not seem too pleased at the race mixing.

What was even stranger is that most of the people in the back seemed resigned to what was happening and when I asked one of them about it, he just said that's the way it is around here. This was less than 10 years ago. I'm not saying I am some sort of civil rights hero or anything for what I did that day, I just wanted to sit and have a good conversation over a cold beer, but some people really think this sort of stuff doesn't happen in America anymore.

I have never understood the white guilt thing or the need of some white people to, as you say, "rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of history." It is sad for alot of reasons, but one of the worst secondary effects of it is that it blinds alot of otherwise good people to the reality of what is still happening today. I've done alot of things in my life that I am ashamed of (I'll plead the fifth here) but I really don't see the point of spending the rest of my life trying to "white wash" what I did, instead of trying to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.

We cannot change our racist past and I think alot of white people would be better served if they spent their time learning their own sorry history, and examining the current state of affairs instead of trying to make amends for a past we cannot change. It happened it was ugly and it destroyed alot of people's lives, now let's learn from it and move on.

If you realy examine the history of white racism in this country, instead of trying to white wash it (what a great phrase), it's kind of like sausage being made; once you see it, most people would never want to eat it again. On the other hand, some do.

Thrasher said...

CD..I found Professor Perry's review stunning..

chaunceydevega said...

@Chris. People want simple stories. They are compelling. If individuals were willing to do a little work they would find much that would surprise, reaffirm, and also challenge them...without having to engage in a dishonest recuperative project. But then again, power isn't interested in truth.

@Thrasher. She does get in their butts.