To the editor:
Recently, I have been thinking about the murder of George Floyd by officer Chauvin in Minneapolis and the tone of our national conversation about racism and white privilege.
Most adults would admit that some racism is easily observed but some is nearly invisible unless it is made obvious by a corporate or government policy.
My first introduction to racism and the benefits of white privilege were made clear to me in 1950 when I traveled with my family to Florida.
There were no interstate highways, so travel could be tedious and time-consuming. Dad drove US 41 for some of it, but also used other state and federal highways. As we went through little towns in Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, we marveled at the color of the soil. I did not know dirt could be red almost maroon in spots. But the greater source of curiosity for my siblings and me was the town square. It seemed that each square at the center of town was solemnly guarded by a WWI or Civil War statue. Most curious to me were the numerous signs separating the races in restaurants, public parks, drinking fountains, etc., with signs saying “whites only” or “colored entrance.”
My siblings and I asked mother lots of questions. She said many practices were held over from “slave days” and reassuringly added there was no slavery anymore. Well, criminy, I already knew that at the tender age of 7.
But, “Why separate everything”? Mother explained that old ways change slowly and are usually resistant to change.
“But why, if the Civil War settled the question of racial freedom,” these “holdovers”? Mother didn’t answer.
There was a measurable length of time before she spoke again: “You are surely aware that Black kids go to separate schools from white kids, aren’t you”? My older brother and sister knew, but I was clueless. The logic of a system that worked that way escaped me.
Throughout the rest of my public school years, I attended integrated schools. I became increasingly aware the two seeming parallel tracks or paths created for white kids and Black kids were near each other, but were distinctly separate and that it was difficult for the Black kids to move to a more advantageous path.
With white privilege, we have learned how to devise a system that commits egregious wrongs against minorities and protects our economic advantage. All of us in this culture coexist in a two-track “We and They” system that holds its knee firmly on the neck of They.
It is time to become the society we like to think we are.
Bill Swigert, Brown County
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