Race relationships
Nov. 26th, 2004 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI was raised in the 50's and 60's mostly in the southeast United States. Social lines were carefully and indelibly drawn. We knew one Jewish family and one Catholic family and the rest of our social base was white, Christian protestant. We did not have servants, per se but we nearly always had someone who came in to clean the house and someone to help in the yard and someone to tend bar at parties. These 'someone's' were always black. They were wonderfully dear people who were usually the only adults who ever treated us kids like real people but we were carefully taught the difference between these people and our friends.
I left the south for college in 1967 and began to really understand what I had come to learn - that the carefully drawn lines were not only not necessary but destructive. I lived int the south again but when I got back, things had changed a bit and I lived in the center of urban areas. I was also older and smarter and I had friends of all races and religions.
In Seattle, I don't know the exact numbers, but I suspect that white Christian protestants are way down on the percentage list. The people I see every day are caucasian, african american, asian and many other groups, I can't even identify but it really doesn't matter.
In Charleston, there are only white people and black people - and it is jarring. The 'home' has only white residents. The managment staff is white. Everyone else is black. There is some cross over. Mom has pointed out nearly every day that the really fun black woman who brings her pills by several times a day is a nurse. She is impressed that this black woman is a nurse.
The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. Have I mentioned that I'm ready to go home? On the upside it has cooled off comfortably and it looks like I'll be out of here before it gets hot again.
I left the south for college in 1967 and began to really understand what I had come to learn - that the carefully drawn lines were not only not necessary but destructive. I lived int the south again but when I got back, things had changed a bit and I lived in the center of urban areas. I was also older and smarter and I had friends of all races and religions.
In Seattle, I don't know the exact numbers, but I suspect that white Christian protestants are way down on the percentage list. The people I see every day are caucasian, african american, asian and many other groups, I can't even identify but it really doesn't matter.
In Charleston, there are only white people and black people - and it is jarring. The 'home' has only white residents. The managment staff is white. Everyone else is black. There is some cross over. Mom has pointed out nearly every day that the really fun black woman who brings her pills by several times a day is a nurse. She is impressed that this black woman is a nurse.
The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. Have I mentioned that I'm ready to go home? On the upside it has cooled off comfortably and it looks like I'll be out of here before it gets hot again.