Walking In Your Shoes

This is not a new scenario, but it is a sad one that has been happening over and again since the civil war. I remember the problems that began in the 1950's after it became official that segregation in schools was illegal and would stop. This problem carried on into the 1960s and beyond. A lot of people could not accept the idea of black children and white children attending the same schools. They were used to schools being all white.

My family and I were always on the move when I was a kid, and our moving had taken us to Manhattan, a place full of all different races of people. It's pretty much wall to wall people on the sidewalks all the time. I remember walking down the street in Manhattan, and my parents suddenly trying to whisk us away into any safe place they could find, because race riots had broken out on the street. It didn't matter if you were black or white, you were not safe. These riots happened frequently, and nobody was the winner in the end, just loss of life and injuries and more hatred brewing inside for both sides.

I remember the day Martin Luther King was shot and killed. It was April 4, 1968, and he was giving a speech in Memphis, TN when he was shot on the balcony where he stood. It was a very sad day for me because he was such a positive leader and had great visions of peace between the races. His "I Have a Dream" speech was one of the most inspirational speeches I have heard.

On August 11 through August 16 1965, the riots broke out in Watts, CA after a young African American by the name of Marquette Frye was pulled over by police in Los Angeles and tensions began to run high with black onlookers. But this wasn't just limited to the 1960s, there have been incidents right into the 1990s that showed racial tensions being high. On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was driving drunk and led police on a high speed chase in Los Angeles. Once he was finally stopped, the police proceeded to beat him unmercifully, and after four officers were acquitted, the 1992 riots in Los Angeles began, so this has been an ongoing thing since 1954 when the desegregation law was brought into play.

Of course, just like any other story in the universe, there are always two sides. When my oldest son was nine, My son, my fiance and I moved into an apartment complex that was 95% African American, which, we were unaware of when we rented the apartment, not that it mattered to us. There was a playground in the center of the complex, and all the kids would gather there to play after school and in the evening after dinner. One evening, my son asked if he could go there and play, and I told him he could. About fifteen minutes later there was a knock at the door, and a small African American child stood there and told me my son had just been hit. I was frantic, threw my dishtowel down and ran after the child, thinking he'd been hit by a car. She led me to the playground, and sitting at the bottom of the slide in a mud puddle was my son. All along the fence there were African American children standing there, defying me to do something. I found out later that one of the children knocked him in the mud and told him if he moved they would beat him up. I yelled at those children with all I had, and no sooner did I get back to the apartment then two rather large African American women came knocking on my door, wanting to know why I said the things I did. I pulled my son into the room and showed them his rapidly forming black eye, and then they understood as mothers why I had been so upset. These ladies and myself had no issues after that, but how can children so young be so racist already, whether they be black or white?

My oldest son went on to become engaged to an African American woman, but his father did everything but disown him for it. I was so sad when they could no longer take the pressure and they split up. She was the nicest lady I have talked to in a long time, and I miss her.

I am sure there are numerous stories that could be related here that would be demonstrative of the injustice that has been suffered over the years by the African American communities. I have a friend that is black, and she told me not only are there the publicized items that happen, but wages are never fair, job promotion is difficult, and being accepted in certain places is still not tolerated. I am only sorry that the white man feels he is that much better than another race just because his skin is white. Nobody can help what color of skin they were born with, and the pigment of a person's skin should not determine how they are treated. It's time for all of us to come together as a "human race' and learn how to love and respect each other.