My Great Aunt, who is a retired journalist, wrote a beautiful blog posting today that everyone should read. It inspired me to ponder on my own feelings of the race relations in Mississippi. Unfortunately, people make judgements about those relations based on what they see on television. When it comes to TV, sex is not the only thing that sells. Another selling point is controversy. Many of the elements of race relations are blown way out of proportion because of Mississippi's history. I see that people in Texas like to label Mississippians as racist before a word has been uttered. I have had many friends from the north who moved to Mississippi thinking that they would be the fair person that was missing from our state. One must live in Mississippi before judging its racial tensions. In the cities of Mississippi, it seems as if there are two kinds of people; those who want equality no matter what and those who want privileges for their race no matter what race it may be. I have also been to several northern areas of the country where the race relations were worse than those in Mississippi.
When the L.A. riots were happening, Hattiesburg was putting on the production of Big River. The house was filled for every performance and it was certainly great to see that we racially embraced each other each and every night. It was a beautiful sight that brought me to tears of elation.
Living in Austin and dwelling in my circles, I hardly see an African-American. I had no idea how influenced I was by that culture to the point of people thinking that I was acting like a black person. I had to correct them and say that I am acting like a Mississippian. I had no idea that they were so culturally segregated. I had a couple of friends here that were African-American from Louisiana and Alabama. One turned out to be a horrible friend and I am glad he moved. The other was a great guy who moved away and we lost contact. I was drawn to them because they are a part of my culture in Mississippi. It is like seeing another American when visiting Mexico. It is nice to just dwell in your own culture.
Austin is not the only place that I have experienced this. I have not lived there but visiting Boston and New York City had a similar effect. It is a matter of the circles that you dwell in and living there for a longer period of time would give me more insight but one cannot deny that the whole country is truly segregated on many racial ideas and ideals.
Getting back to Mississippi, do not judge unless you have been there to judge it for yourself. It is very complex and racial killings would be happening all the time if there were no tolerance for race. I do not know of a death that has happened that way in a very long long time. Anything from a diet to cultural changes is best when it moves at a slow steady pace. Rather than being impatient about race relations, one needs to understand and become an example of what is the best choice.
I relinquish my soap box now. LOL.
1 comment:
Excellent post, GSM! Culture is definitely a factor in race relations. I consider myself tolerant, but I cannot stand hip-hop. That doesn’t make me a racist.
Thanks for the link to my “pre-inauguration” post. I know you noted in the post that I used the phrase “a 1953 Mississippi.” You weren’t born then, and I was 11 years old. I cast no aspersions on the Mississippi of today.
I did not live in the Mississippi folks like to portray as racist – in the sense of my socialization, not my environment. I, too, am defensive about the state being the kicking-boy for the nation when, indeed, racism exists everywhere. Our home state’s image can be summed up with the old adage, “One rotten apple spoils the whole lot.”
You also are right about the media: conflict sells, whether it’s Americans v. terrorists or whites v. blacks. We will known that racism has disappeared when we no longer have to point out that people are black or white or any other skin color.
Great Aunt BJ
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