Regarding Graystorm's one entry's comments
Just now, I was catching up on Graystorm's blog by skimming most of the May entries. I did not read any comments on those entries, but except this one, Racially Biased or Stating a Truth?. Its article on Vincent Fox caught my attention and the fact it had 13 comments. So, I clicked on the comments, naturally.
It really saddens and angers me to see this argument between black and white people. Is this still going on, people? Honestly, Eiffilc & Ridor, why bicker at all? Such waste of enegry. We all know that this slavery issue is very old and we all have to let go of the feelings toward it. But, of course, we can't let go of the history of it because so we can't deny it and repeat history. I hate it when black people still are playing the blame game. That disappoints me very much.
(By the way, Vincent Fox probably should have a better choice of words when he talked about Mexican jobs and the Blacks.)
Some of them tends to assume that my ancestors were part of the slavery.. truth to be told, my family had to do NOTHING with slavery because they were basically very, very poor & hard-working & English-illitarated immigrates (majorly) from Germany & Italy & Poland who came to U.S. in the late 1800's. (Note 'late 1800's': Ridor is correct with the history info on the timeline of the immigration).
I remember 3 indicints throughout my earlier life.
First one: It was sometimes during kidgarnter at SJSD (St.Joseph's School for the Deaf). I was maybe 4 years old. My very diversified class all were coloring in their coloring books. Those classmates were all any of darker races and I was the only white girl there. I remember Sunil Joseph who was an indian and Richard Garica who was mixed spanish and something else, either I forgot or can't tell. They were at the same table as I was. Happily, I was coloring away in my book. Then, I saw Richard laugh at Sunil. I wondered why. Sunil seemed to feel belittled. Richard said, "Can't people green. haha" I saw that Sunil was coloring a person's skin green. I looked at Richard's book. He colored a person med to dark brown like himself. I said to Sunil, "*shaking head* don't matter. color people can any. *smiling* *pointing at Sunil's green person* I like!" After that, Sunil smiled and got his confidence back and looked at Richard as if he was saying with his face, "see! ha! *sticking out tongue*". Then, Richard went quiet and went back to work on his book. I said to Richard, "*pointing to his person in book* Same too I like. Different colors all can! *smiles*" I am not sure if that helped Richard much, but he did let a corner smile out for a second embarrasedly. I remember feeling that I knew colors did not matter to me nor it should to anyone else. I know I never cared for people's color skin.
I actually, for a while, wished (later on when I was a little older) that I was not white.
Second one: When my class of 6 including myself were learning about World History in Social Studies at SJSD & one day we were taught one segement of the history timeline which was about WW2. Now, we were all about 10 to 12 years old. Bunch of Puetro Rican boys and one Italian/Irish girl and one German girl. During the lesson in class, we had first realized how picky Hitler was at selection of who were going to die at the concertation camps which were Jews, Blacks, Gyspys, "Handicapped", and all brown-haired & bronw-eyed people. Automatically, all of my classmates, who were all brown-haired & brown-eyed, immediatedly looked at me, who was the German blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl. I vividly remember the feeling I had at that nanosecond moment. I felt guilty. Really. I felt a little dirty just because if we all lived at that time there and my friends would die in the camps, but not me. The next second, something came into my head very quickly and I mentioned to the whole class that Hitler kills deaf people, too. So, I would be at the camp with them, too. I felt better after saying that. I don't know why I did. I guess I wanted to dive with them, too. As a child, I was the type who did not like the idea of people not liking me.
Third one: I was in high school. Maybe at 15 or 16 years old, I forgot when. This was at Fanwood (New York School for the Deaf). Anyway, sometimes, some students would hang a bit after school and play basketball in the gym and sometimes, their friends would come and hang with us also. One day, I went and sat on the bleachers with friends and watched them play some b-ball between only maybe 6 people. On the bleachers, there were also 2 staff sitting. While the guys were playing, one of the staff noticed something on the student's friend. I was sitting one row behind that staff who talked to black kid. He called his attention and pointed out to him that he had black sneakers on and that those sneakers weren't allowed to be worn on the gym floor. We had a rule about No Black Sneakers because it would leave a mark on the floor and what's more, that recent summer, they had installed a brand new floor there. The guy who had the black sneakers was black himself and carried an awful attitude so basically, he was simply a jerk, I guess. Anyway, the staff asked him if he had another pair of white sneakers or borrow from friends. The black dude gave him faces and said this and that I don't remember. But, the staff continued to focus on the problem of his black sneakers. Finally, the black kid said, "oh, is it because I'm black? so you find reason to pick on me?". Whoa... that hit me. I was so appaulled by that comment that he had made to the deaf white staff. I could not believe he said that. It was so very unnecessary to even bring that up. It was nothing to do with if he was silver or pink or green. It was a fucking new floor and your black sneakers is rubbing on it!! I so wanted to get involved and point it out to him, the black guy, that I once had to scrub a gym floor at SJSD when I was a kid all because I accidently wore my black sneakers to gym during class. But I felt too araged inside even to bring myself to talk. So I just kept watching the whole thing happening front of me. The staff felt the same as me, I could see it very clearly, and he finally said "Finish! Not about you black! please! No. About your shoes! Please yourself leave from gym and use white sneakers then can back here play." But the black dude keep going on and on about black this and black that. The staff have had it with him and requested him to leave the gym and stay off of the school's premise for now. The grumpy black guy left.
I never forgot those 3 moments. It each sent me a powerful message from life itself. I hope you can see what they are and what they mean to you and what thoughts are they provoking.
Ridor, you have made me think about taking up on African History, hmm. I did take up Women's Studies. A part of it had a lot mentions about the slavery as well. It was very inspiring and educational and a little too close to home for me because I am a woman.
Eiffilc, maybe this also will inspire you to take up on History of Africa or Civil Rights or others like it. :-) It does sounds very ingruiting (sp?), don't you agree?
It really saddens and angers me to see this argument between black and white people. Is this still going on, people? Honestly, Eiffilc & Ridor, why bicker at all? Such waste of enegry. We all know that this slavery issue is very old and we all have to let go of the feelings toward it. But, of course, we can't let go of the history of it because so we can't deny it and repeat history. I hate it when black people still are playing the blame game. That disappoints me very much.
(By the way, Vincent Fox probably should have a better choice of words when he talked about Mexican jobs and the Blacks.)
Some of them tends to assume that my ancestors were part of the slavery.. truth to be told, my family had to do NOTHING with slavery because they were basically very, very poor & hard-working & English-illitarated immigrates (majorly) from Germany & Italy & Poland who came to U.S. in the late 1800's. (Note 'late 1800's': Ridor is correct with the history info on the timeline of the immigration).
I remember 3 indicints throughout my earlier life.
First one: It was sometimes during kidgarnter at SJSD (St.Joseph's School for the Deaf). I was maybe 4 years old. My very diversified class all were coloring in their coloring books. Those classmates were all any of darker races and I was the only white girl there. I remember Sunil Joseph who was an indian and Richard Garica who was mixed spanish and something else, either I forgot or can't tell. They were at the same table as I was. Happily, I was coloring away in my book. Then, I saw Richard laugh at Sunil. I wondered why. Sunil seemed to feel belittled. Richard said, "Can't people green. haha" I saw that Sunil was coloring a person's skin green. I looked at Richard's book. He colored a person med to dark brown like himself. I said to Sunil, "*shaking head* don't matter. color people can any. *smiling* *pointing at Sunil's green person* I like!" After that, Sunil smiled and got his confidence back and looked at Richard as if he was saying with his face, "see! ha! *sticking out tongue*". Then, Richard went quiet and went back to work on his book. I said to Richard, "*pointing to his person in book* Same too I like. Different colors all can! *smiles*" I am not sure if that helped Richard much, but he did let a corner smile out for a second embarrasedly. I remember feeling that I knew colors did not matter to me nor it should to anyone else. I know I never cared for people's color skin.
I actually, for a while, wished (later on when I was a little older) that I was not white.
Second one: When my class of 6 including myself were learning about World History in Social Studies at SJSD & one day we were taught one segement of the history timeline which was about WW2. Now, we were all about 10 to 12 years old. Bunch of Puetro Rican boys and one Italian/Irish girl and one German girl. During the lesson in class, we had first realized how picky Hitler was at selection of who were going to die at the concertation camps which were Jews, Blacks, Gyspys, "Handicapped", and all brown-haired & bronw-eyed people. Automatically, all of my classmates, who were all brown-haired & brown-eyed, immediatedly looked at me, who was the German blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl. I vividly remember the feeling I had at that nanosecond moment. I felt guilty. Really. I felt a little dirty just because if we all lived at that time there and my friends would die in the camps, but not me. The next second, something came into my head very quickly and I mentioned to the whole class that Hitler kills deaf people, too. So, I would be at the camp with them, too. I felt better after saying that. I don't know why I did. I guess I wanted to dive with them, too. As a child, I was the type who did not like the idea of people not liking me.
Third one: I was in high school. Maybe at 15 or 16 years old, I forgot when. This was at Fanwood (New York School for the Deaf). Anyway, sometimes, some students would hang a bit after school and play basketball in the gym and sometimes, their friends would come and hang with us also. One day, I went and sat on the bleachers with friends and watched them play some b-ball between only maybe 6 people. On the bleachers, there were also 2 staff sitting. While the guys were playing, one of the staff noticed something on the student's friend. I was sitting one row behind that staff who talked to black kid. He called his attention and pointed out to him that he had black sneakers on and that those sneakers weren't allowed to be worn on the gym floor. We had a rule about No Black Sneakers because it would leave a mark on the floor and what's more, that recent summer, they had installed a brand new floor there. The guy who had the black sneakers was black himself and carried an awful attitude so basically, he was simply a jerk, I guess. Anyway, the staff asked him if he had another pair of white sneakers or borrow from friends. The black dude gave him faces and said this and that I don't remember. But, the staff continued to focus on the problem of his black sneakers. Finally, the black kid said, "oh, is it because I'm black? so you find reason to pick on me?". Whoa... that hit me. I was so appaulled by that comment that he had made to the deaf white staff. I could not believe he said that. It was so very unnecessary to even bring that up. It was nothing to do with if he was silver or pink or green. It was a fucking new floor and your black sneakers is rubbing on it!! I so wanted to get involved and point it out to him, the black guy, that I once had to scrub a gym floor at SJSD when I was a kid all because I accidently wore my black sneakers to gym during class. But I felt too araged inside even to bring myself to talk. So I just kept watching the whole thing happening front of me. The staff felt the same as me, I could see it very clearly, and he finally said "Finish! Not about you black! please! No. About your shoes! Please yourself leave from gym and use white sneakers then can back here play." But the black dude keep going on and on about black this and black that. The staff have had it with him and requested him to leave the gym and stay off of the school's premise for now. The grumpy black guy left.
I never forgot those 3 moments. It each sent me a powerful message from life itself. I hope you can see what they are and what they mean to you and what thoughts are they provoking.
Ridor, you have made me think about taking up on African History, hmm. I did take up Women's Studies. A part of it had a lot mentions about the slavery as well. It was very inspiring and educational and a little too close to home for me because I am a woman.
Eiffilc, maybe this also will inspire you to take up on History of Africa or Civil Rights or others like it. :-) It does sounds very ingruiting (sp?), don't you agree?
posted by Veronica at 10:36 AM
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