My partner was telling me this as she talked about the most racist person she had ever known. A school mate who had moved from a Northern State and had never seen a black person until she moved to Independence MO.
My partner is 13 years younger than me and at my age of 78, we were raised in a different age. I was born in NW MO and when I came to KC at the age of 20, my experience with a Black Person was limited to one instance that in itself was unusual. Our rural Southern Baptist had a visit one Sun evening by a Black couple who had been Christianized in Africa and put on a tour in churches to demonstrate the need for support for missionaries. At the end of the evening service, the half dozen other families slowly left leaving my parents there with the couple. As we were miles from a motel, let alone a motel in the early 50”s that would have allowed a black couple to stay, they invited the couple to spend the night with us.
I will never forget my mother coming to tuck me in and telling me, “It’s ok. They are from Africa.”
After a spell in a Christian College, I moved to Kansas City in the early ’80s at the age of 20. My next experience with Negros came, again in a Southern Baptist Church. A Black Couple came one Sunday morning and sat in the back of the church. The following Wed evening prayer meeting involved the subject of “What are we going to do if they want to join?” Shortly thereafter, I left the Southern Baptist Church. When I was 50, I learned that the Southern Baptist could not trace their roots back to Jesus as I had been told so many times. Instead, I learned that they broke from the Baptist because they believed Negros should be slaves.
About this time, I was carrying mail in NE KC. We had black carriers and I knew that one carrier always went home for lunch. One day, we had a black substitute from another station and I invited him to meet me for lunch at a local restaurant. He declined my invitation and I imagine that he probably wondered about me. Sometime later, I went into my favorite restaurant and the lady behind the counter was livid. Some Black Man had come in and while waiting for his order, he had sat on one of her stools. She could not let it go! I ceased going to that restaurant. I soon became aware that it didn’t make a difference because no Black Person could sit and eat in a restaurant in KC or much of the US.
That was a long time ago, but not the end of my experiences with Black People. I wrote another DailyKos article “White man (67) pulled out of church by state police because with black girlfriend (55).”
I am the author of “JayWalkers Shouldn’t be Shot”.