Hello, Daily Kos Community....
I am in the middle of a book on helping people heal from the wounds inflicted on them by racism in their daily lives. I would like to enlist your help in responding to an outline of overt, yet unwritten, jim crow behaviors that people in my generation and my parents generation suffered and internalized throughout their lives. Because we knew these unwritten rules by heart, and lived and died by them, I believe we recognize the echoes of these behaviors in attitudes and actions exhibited by many people in the rising of the neo-confederate right wing in this country. Would you be so kind as to respond, from your heart to these questions? What memories are triggered after reading the descriptions below? How are these behaviors displayed today? Please give examples. Thx!
HISTORIC RACIAL SHAMING AND RACIAL HUMILIATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS
As part of the African Diaspora created by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, people of African descent in the United States were part of a 12 million person forced relocation, from Africa to North and South America,the Caribbean, and Europe, the largest in recorded history. Over time, in the United States, the enslavement of Africans was codified in law and in Euro-American cultural practices. The infamous Dred Scott decision, in which an enslaved man sued unsuccessfully, for his freedom, made reference to this dual process.
It is difficult, at this day, to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the constitution was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior race, and altogether unfit to associate with the white races, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."
So not only was the state of subjugation legal, the court asserted, it grew out of public opinion and cultural practices, over time, in "white" European nations. Even after the civil war was fought and the right to vote was granted to African American men, and the right to freedom from indentured servitude granted to all, except for those in prison, cultural practices remained. Some of these cultural practices became laws after reconstruction, and were termed "jim crow" laws. These laws varied from state to state, and the enforcement of these laws also varied. Most of these laws were designed to enforce racial segregation and penalize social interaction. However, the cultural practices that they were created to maintain are more clearly described in the unwritten rules of racial, jim crow etiquette. Not knowing and/or not observing these rules could result in your death, serious bodily injury, loss of your job, imprisonment and racial harassment and abuse, if you were of African descent.
Some of those unwritten rules were:
UNWRITTEN RULES OF JIM CROW
1. A black male could not offer his hand to shake hands with a white male because it implied being socially equal. He could not offer his hand or any other body part to a white woman or he risked being accused of rape. Even lighting a woman's cigarette implied intimacy.
2. Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another because it offended whites.
3. No titles of respect were to be used when referring to black people. Black people were to use courtesy titles when referring to whites and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
4. White motorists had the right of way at all intersections.
5. A black person should never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.
6. A black person should not impute dishonorable intentions to a white person
7. A black person should never impute that a white person is of a lower class.
8. A black person should never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate superior knowledge or intelligence.
9. A black person should never curse a white person.
10. A black person should never laugh derisively at a white person
11. A black man should never comment upon the appearance of a white female
12. A black person should never appear more wealthy and prosperous than white people, without being under the control of, or obsequious to, white people.
These rules of behavior were taught to black children by their parents and those who cared about them either explicitly or by example, in order for them to survive and negotiate a pervasive system designed to subject them to daily humiliation and restrictions.
If we reverse those rules into expectations of deference, that support beliefs in white supremacy, they would look like this.
UNWRITTEN RULES OF WHITE SUPREMACY
1. Avoid shaking hands with black men because it will appear that you are accepting them as equals, and you must never appear to do so.
2. Censor any depictions of affection between black people in the media because it is offensive to white people, particularly in the South.
3. Do not use Mr. or Mrs. When you address black people, because it gives them the idea that they are equal to white people, and they are not. Other white people will think you accept them as your equals and will shun you.
4. Never give the right of way to a black person, make them wait on you. In a store, always serve the white person first.
5. Always believe the white person in a dispute between a black person and a white person, black people lie and are untrustworthy.
6. A black person who casts aspersions on white people cannot be trusted and is being arrogant.
7. A white person no matter how poor is superior to a black person no matter how wealthy.
8. Black people are intellectually inferior to white people. Black people who 'act' as if they are more intelligent are arrogant and pretentious and should be 'put in their place' (humiliated)
9. Black people should always treat white people with respect, or they should be punished.
10. Black people should never make fun of a white person, or they should be punished.
11. Black men should not make a pass at or look suggestively at white women, without punishment.
12. Black men have no economic rights to surpass white men in their accumulation of wealth, and it is okay to economically cheat and exploit them if possible.
13. Black people's lives are not as valuable as white people's lives
POST CIVIL RIGHTS
These rules were also taught to white children, explicitly or by example, as part of the privilege of being white and the level of deference that they should expect from black people in every day interactions.
Ruth Thompson Miller conducted a research project that documented the experiences of 100 elderly Americans who lived under Jim Crow. The long lasting psychological effects of racial violence and stress were examined as were the results of what she called "segregation stress syndrome." This syndrome described the effects of living under l the "chronic, enduring, extremely painful experiences and responses to official segregation". Preliminary findings indicate that the symptoms of “segregation stress syndrome” are similar to PTSD symptoms documented in psychiatric literature. However, “segregation stress syndrome” differs from PTSD because the traumatic experience was not a one-time occurrence; it was sustained, over time, in African American communities. In addition, the racial violence that occurred during legal segregation was a form of insidiously persistent , systematic ,chronic stress. She also found that there seemed to be an intergenerational aspect that predisposed some younger African Americans to psychological damage, stress and trauma, even though contemporary forms of racial violence seem to be less damaging.
NARRATIVE
Clifford Boxley...
So, I understood this. But, if there was ever a time when I was conscious of unfairness or what have you, it's when you are confronted with the first line of the oppressive system, the white police. That's your greatest fear. That's where your greatest trouble is going to come from. Or, from some "redneck" white men. You had to be very skillful and concerned, especially with shady-type white men, you know. You could discern which ones, you could tell them, you knew the type ... you know the typical ... come right up off the plantation, the overseer type. You know, dirty, unshaven, speech bad, teeth nasty or missing--those kinds of things. You don't want no action there.
So, you don't mess with white women. You don't talk back to white women. You don't sass white women. You don't even find yourself in the presence of white women alone, okay? I can work in the drug store and have a discussion with Ms. Alma, the woman who was in there. Or Glen, who is a young high school boy just like I am working there--but he's got a better position. Ms. Alma is in charge, and you talk, you know, about the issues of work. The floor is dirty, there is dust on the products, and what have you. But, you don't talk about sex. You don't talk about religion. You don't talk about politics. You don't talk about any of these things. Whether you considered that to be unfair or not, it's not a fair question, because it's not a question of our childhood.
We had to walk to school, so, you're talking about being able to survive in this Jim Crow jungle as a very young child. Skillful, skillful. If you had any money, you could catch the bus to a certain distance. You had to get in the back. You go in, and you put your little three cents or penny, whatever it is, and if the bus is full of whites, because up front whites are sitting on the bus. Your seats are all the way in the back. If it's full of whites all the way down the aisle, you put your penny or three cents in and get off the bus and go to the back door. You go to the back of the bus. If the seats are full of blacks and there are empty seats up there in the white section, you don't go, you just stand up and hold on and what have you. You don't challenge it. You know what type of communities to go right through. You know when you're interfacing with a white male what psychology to use --depending on the situation--whether to get the hell out of there or to stand and engage in a submissive form. You knew that the black girls going back and forth to school never should be going home alone. There always was a need for a boy to be with a girl. You knew that, as soon as a white man who might have his eyes on a young black girl came along in an automobile, you were to detain him in some kind of questioning way, while the girls hurried along. All of you stayed together and then, chances are, that you are not going to be bothered. "
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I know these examples may be painful to read....but would you respond below to my questions? Thank you.