You spoke of Geraldo and how he is a different person when he begins to talk about race and the injustices done to minorities. You say that you do not understand why Geraldo, a person who has it all, should get so uptight. Geraldo is just like the rest of us, he is a minority first and a successful television personality second. He knows that all it takes is one racial bigot to make him feel like two cents in a lint-filled purse.
I know that you have heard the saying "You haven't lived until you have walked a mile in myshoes"; well, that is what seeps out no matter how much a minority tries to stay above the fray.
I joined the Navy in 1964 after the Department of Defense decided to allow Blacks and otherminorities to strike for other rates besides Cook and Steward. I had the brains and the determination to make a difference and I was determined to do so.
For the first twenty years of my life as I grew up in New Orleans, no one had ever called me a'N....'. Never knew that word, but I had seen the things that occurred because Blacks should know there place - can't use this bathroom, don't drink from this fountain, and we don't wantyou swimming in the same pool with us. Try growing up and experiencing that you are not human because of the color of your skin. Try to understand why a White person has a derogatory name for every other race on the face of the Earth and minorities can only call a White man a gringo, honkie, or whitey.
Whites, racially motivated Whites, think like that. You may not be the guy that ever thinks in that manner and that is good, but 'you' don't make a strong enough effort to put those in check that do. "In a democracy, silence is not golden; it is condonance in the face of injustices; it is fear, where the thought of reprisal fosters control" – Rodney A. Davis. Goggle that, you will find that I own it and it is true.
You know why you see very few Blacks at these town hall meetings - those against the reform ofhealth care are so into the lies that they have been told that they are allowing racial hatred of the President, who is Black, to incite them to more racial hatred. We see it and know that any effort to represent is going to cause more grief for the Health Care reform.
When you have a person screaming at the top of their lungs that they don't want socialism only to find out later that they are on social security using Medicare... it lets you know that your original assessment of them was correct - they are ignorant. An ignorant person that thinks that he is in power is more dangerous than a man with a gun.
You have no idea how close to Civil War America is at this moment. If anyone tries to do harm to Obama, it will not be like with Martin Luther King; it will not be like with Malcolm X. America's silent majority, those that think as you need to be up front and vocal... NOW! You have a choice... you can keep a low profile or you can make a difference by sending a message that nothing is going to return to the days shortly after the first Civil War.
Read your history book and see how much of a difference Blacks were making right after the Civil War. Blacks were elected to office after the war; opening businesses, and then Rutherford B. Hayes made a deal with the Whigs to be President and Blacks were enslaved... never again!
Go goggle Black inventors, find out just how much 'the rest of the world' should be grateful to the minds of Black. Your refrigerator and air conditioner were invented by Blacks; the red light, blood transfusions were invented by Blacks. Charles Drew, the man that perfected the blood transfusion process died when he was involved in an accident in the South for lack of acceptance to the nearest hospital where he could have received a 'blood transfusion' and medical care
b e c a u s e he was B L A C K!
I hope that you never have to walk a mile in my shoes... you would never survive!
