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Nice diary. I think we all know people like this. It takes generations to stamp out racism. I'm hoping that President Obama will be one of the final nails in the coffin of prejudice.
Stop McCain and the GOP. Support Barack Obama and the DNC.
by DaveV on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:13:01 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
You think I should - frankly I didn't think this was worthy of a tipjar - but thanks for the recommend
by Rosebuddear on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:16:58 AM PDT
Kudos!
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. H.L. Mencken
by hockeyrules on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:24:02 AM PDT
nm
Don't Legitimize Fox News. "Democrats have the heart to care."
by jeepdad on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:25:18 AM PDT
...I think I'd have given up hope long ago.
Freedom isn't "on the march." Freedom dances.
by WarrenS on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:10:05 AM PDT
if you don't put one up. Many of us in our 50s have parents and relatives who have embarassing prejudices. My parents -- born and bred in Baltimore, children of raging racists, somehow didn't get shackled with those biases -- but, the LGBT community is another matter, even though they know and like and have friends who are gay or lesbian. We take people with their warts and goodness. It is most rewarding when you get to see "enlightenment" in one who is prejudiced -- no matter how he or she came to their conclusions.
Be proud of your Dad for this break in a long entrenched feeling.
Thanks for the diary.
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. Barbara Jordan 1974
by gchaucer2 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:26:32 AM PDT
relatives. I understand and sympathize with you.
by teresahill on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:44:01 AM PDT
my cousin has a long time boyfriend who is black (she's white). They'll probably get married, which would be the third time for her and the second for him. After 6 years they're still ga ga over each other, which is really cute.
OK, the two other jerks my cousin was married to, being white guys, were welcomed into the family (even though the second husband was a complete loser). My aunt refuses to meet the best one of the lot. Why? Simply because he's black, and "what would my friends at the country club think?"
Now, my mother, who does not have the views her sister-in-law does, says to me, "well, what if Obama's elected President, what's she going to do then?"
If Obama is elected President it could change a lot of things for a lot of people, merely by the example.
Pretty Bird Woman House has a new house!
by betson08 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 01:30:52 PM PDT
president, well... I just won't know which bathroom to use anymore!
(Imagine Archie Bunker saying that - )
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. Thomas Jefferson 6/11/1807
by Patriot4peace on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 01:49:12 PM PDT
daughter/sister to marry one?
The kid might become President of the United States!
My dad is 90, and was raised by his southern parents to just simply accept the "fact" that Blacks were inferior. Not bad people. Just inferior. Dad even had some Black friends, whom he always described as, "oh, my friend is different from the rest."
He loved Colin Powell, but didn't realize that Powell was Black. When he found out, he said he couldn't vote for Powell (when there was a big buzz about Powell running for prez.)
But now he wants to vote for Obama.
At 90.
A change is coming.
May your entire existence be one sensuous, frolic-filled experience lived in defiance of care.
by Fonsia on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 02:12:48 PM PDT
racism, then he'll point out, We'll I get along just fine with so-and-so (who's black). Like it's okay to be a racist in general, then give yourself points for having one or two black friends who are okay. But my father's 64 now, and I think like you do. Racism is dying out. It's a new day, a better day. I was born in 1963, and I must have gone to first grade right around the time schools were integrated in Kentucky. I think I've always been in schools with black children. In fact, I had no idea there was a world where black and white children didn't go to school together. (Why would I think there were? These ideas don't just come to us. They are taught.) I was in... I don't know, sixth grade or so when I was in the car with my mother driving through town, and I saw an old, abandoned building and asked, "What's that?" She said, "It's the old black school house?" I said, "What do you mean, the old black school house?" It made no sense to me. She went on to explain that for a long time, blacks and whites were schooled separately. Blew me away. I couldn't imagine my town having separate schools for blacks and whites. But there it was, that old building. I know change will never come fast enough for people who've suffered from racism. But our world is really incredibly different from my parent's generation's world. My great aunt, who died at 95 years old, just two years ago, was raised to be terrified for black people. I'm not talking distrustful or to think she was better than them. I'm talking, terrified. I never got the whole story on that, but it's how she was raised, and she felt that fear until the day she died, despite anything else she ever saw in her life. But she's 95, and she's gone now. Lots of these people are dying off, their attitudes with them, I pray.
by teresahill on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:29:22 PM PDT
With people who think it's better to risk allowing children to live in this winters cold rather than have a home they might not keep up sufficiently. There are a few reasons to allow massive childhood deaths from exposure but insufficient attention to hosekeeping is not one that warrents discussion.
"Obama. He's redefining what a politician is... take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future " Bob Dylan
by SmithsLastWord on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:04:23 PM PDT
...tipped for your contribution to the never-ending struggle to improve our elders :)
One can't spell MEAT without EAT and ME.
by leberquesgue on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:32:03 AM PDT
Obama better than Huckabee.
...once you're willing to say whatever it takes to win, you lose. ~~Dean
by dkmich on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:53:43 AM PDT
diary.
by gchaucer2 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:09:09 AM PDT
to every story.
by dkmich on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:17:43 AM PDT
called Obama an "Uncle Tom" on this board so I am not surprised at your earlier comment.
In John McCain we have the opportunity to experience Bush's Third Term.
by Sam I Am on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:50:08 PM PDT
COMMENT. :):):)
by Rosebuddear on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 02:02:32 PM PDT
Not an Obama supporter yet myself but I think it speaks highly of Obama that a racist die hard Repug is ready to vote for him.
June 3rd 2008 America is at last started on the road to long awaited recovery
by eaglecries on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:33:16 AM PDT
great job!
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." Bertrand Russell
by Tom Enever on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 10:58:46 AM PDT
A woman I know (shirt-tail cousin) was explaining to me that she would carpet-bomb Iraq if she were President. As I struggled to maintain my composure out of respect for my host she then told me that she intended to vote for Barack Obama.
That was the first time I started thinking seriously about Obama as a potentially transformative, special candidate.
by St Louis Woman on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 12:27:10 PM PDT
What is a "shirt-tail cousin"?
"Specialization is for insects." -- Heinlein
by BachFan on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:07:09 PM PDT
In this case, the woman I was telling about is the sister of a woman who is married to one of my brothers. She's my sister-in-law's sister.
From Charles F Weishar: "I attempted to find the source of shirttail relative and similar expressions in Hendrickson’s encyclopedia and your site but have found nothing. I hear the phrase used to describe a person who is close but not actually related by blood." [A] That’s roughly the meaning given in the dictionaries. It’s usually said to refer to somebody who is a relative by marriage or is only distantly related, such as a fourth cousin, or is a family friend with honorary status as a relative. It’s fairly common in the USA and has been since the 1950s or thereabouts.
From Charles F Weishar: "I attempted to find the source of shirttail relative and similar expressions in Hendrickson’s encyclopedia and your site but have found nothing. I hear the phrase used to describe a person who is close but not actually related by blood."
[A] That’s roughly the meaning given in the dictionaries. It’s usually said to refer to somebody who is a relative by marriage or is only distantly related, such as a fourth cousin, or is a family friend with honorary status as a relative. It’s fairly common in the USA and has been since the 1950s or thereabouts.
by St Louis Woman on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 06:48:37 PM PDT
Have you read much here, lately? This is a real nice story. It's well written. It's even pretty damn funny.
Well done.
by dfb1968 on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 01:29:20 PM PDT
It's a great diary and pleasure to read and recommend.
Thanks!
by kidneystones on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 04:14:17 PM PDT
This is so powerful. You have so much to offer this community. You are a great writer and able to clearly articulate things in a way that reaches many people. Keep 'em coming. More more more. Blessed Be.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
by empathy on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 07:34:38 AM PDT
Who wouldda thunk it, but we are looking at THE END of an undercurrent of American life that has existed throughout our History. Obama brings so much to America other than this, but no-one should underestimate the significance of race in America, and what it would mean to finally, FINALLY heal.
"We the People of the United States..." -U.S.Constitution
by elwior on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:27:46 AM PDT
shoved down in to such a dark little hole that they'll be even more irrelevant than they already are.
by Fonsia on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 02:18:34 PM PDT
On the other side, we deal with Barack is not speaking to our "black" issues enough. Then we say what are those issues? Education, jobs, opportunity, rising gas prices, corrupt government that doesn't listen to us, injustice in the legal systems. Then we discover we are the same, our interests and desires for our lives are the same. We have to keep stuggling to build bridges of understanding both within and outside of our family and friendship circles.
by jazzyjay on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 02:28:01 PM PDT
wide narrow
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