I have been quite amazed at the changes that have occurred in Texas and in America since I was growing up in the 40's and 50's. It actually came as a surprise to me to realize that the High School I graduated from was still segregated in 1961. I mean I was aware that Negros had their own school, and I wondered why the city fathers hadn't implemented the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education, but like most High Schoolers, I had my own problems. I remember the racist jokes, but I couldn't get a laugh when I tried to tell jokes of any kind, so I didn't tell them. A few years later the School District closed my High School down and opened a new one in the far west end (mostly White) of town. Since I never returned to my hometown after 1961 except to visit my parents, it didn't occur to me until years later that the closing of my high school and the opening of another miles to the West was intended to avoid integration.
When I started work for Social Security in 1971 I was assigned to New Orleans where I worked downtown. At that time nearly half the Black population of New Orleans was functionally illiterate. After a lot of foot dragging, the public schools were integrated sometime in the 60's. So the Whites put their children in the catholic schools. Then whenever the public schools needed higher taxes or a bond issue, the White voters would vote it down. I got transferred out of New Orleans because of the lack of a decent public school system of any kind. Many of the stories of the schools in New Orleans after Katrina have emphasized what a disaster the New Orleans public school system remained even the day Katrina hit. The reason this is true is Racism. Active, applied racism that too many White people refuse to admit they practice. It wasn't pure racism, though. There was also a major element of classism involved. Poor people of any race were not appreciated except as servants or waiters.
There is an excellent diary at dKos in which Pericles analyzed how American racism has changed in the last sixty years. He really hits it on the head, much better than I have been able to do. If you are an American White then you are racist and in denial. Go read the diary to see how that is true.
So what? Nothing new. We can continue to ignore it because we aren't racist. It's those other people. Only they don't think they are racist either. As Don Imus said, he is an entertainer. What he said was wrong, but he is really a good person. He's not racist.
Yes he is. And so are most American Whites. Including me. It's just that racism has changed from the days when listened to (or told) blatantly racist jokes and laughed at them without any idea that they were not funny. The older a person is, the more racist he or she is. Not because we are getting worse, but because I think the kids are getting better than we are. But it still 'bites' us, coming seemingly out of nowhere as Don Imus has just found out. and it will remain as long as our towns and cities have largely Black and largely White sections.
America has, I think, made amazing progress on the problems of racism. But the problem is not gone, and the effort cannot be called finished. It is just in a new and more subtle stage.
Let's hope that the next generation gets it really right. Racism is too corrosive in this nation for us to wait for two, three or more generations to stamp it out - and it will have to be stamped out. It will not disappear on its own.
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