This comment was by John Anderson in reference to the post – Colin Kaepernick and The Politics of Race, Arrogance, and Hypocrisy
When we talk about opportunity and whether black people have the same opportunities as whites, I think it’s important to consider a story Brother Frank told us in high school.
He was driving down a rural road and another car was approaching the intersection at the same time perpendicular to his. It was driven by an older black woman. He waited to let her go through, but she just stayed there. He decided to motion her to cross with his hand and she just shook her head. He rolled down his window and called out to her to go ahead and she replied. No, you’re white (so you go first.)
Now when we talk about the effects of racism, a lot of things can be seen. A black man is dragged behind a truck by neo-nazis and is murdered. A lot of things can be inferred. Black people were denied opportunities in the past so were poor, not due to laziness or ability, but to racism. Their children grew up poor and there have been cycles of poverty. The wealth gap increased and didn’t shrink was whites were allowed to grow wealth and blacks who tried to grow wealth were sometimes lynched. Other effects, like the one I mentioned, are harder to see. They’re just as real, though.
I wish I could tell you where this fits. The laws have been mostly race-neutral for a while, but Brother Frank was talking about the early / middle 70s and I don’t know that it would be fair to say that the beliefs and customs of your grandmother or even parents (deference to white people) shouldn’t affect you at all. I just think it’s an important story to share.
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