[NIFL-POVRACELIT:134] Re: Defining Our Own Racism--Individual

From: Catherine King (cbking@flash.net)
Date: Wed Oct 04 2000 - 17:07:16 EDT


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From: "Catherine King" <cbking@flash.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:134] Re: Defining Our Own Racism--Individual
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To Kate Gladstone:

Who asks about my black students saying they believe racism
(the specific kind of white against black in the U.S.) will never
be over:

 "Not *ever*? I agree that our entire nation probably won't entirely cure
itself of all racist/biased attitudes within our lifetimes ... but do your
black students truly *seriously* believe that, say, the Universe will end
before this happens?"

Yes.  This is what many have implied, and two have openly argued more
than once--because I argued against them--using myself and people
whom I know--not all teachers--as examples.  I use myself with the
caveat that I have been--and am still--going through a journey out of
my own unstated but now-clear assumed racism.

But I know people--in my church in Farmville, Va., in the "deep south,"
for example, who (1) got fired when she opened the public lake to
black children as a first-job forest service worker; and (2) a now-in-her-
eighties white woman who suffered great social ostricism for years
defending her black neighbors during the Moton School student revolt
in Farmville.  There are many examples just in that area of white people
who sent black children to their family's homes out of the area so they
could continue their education when the board of education actually
closed the schools and opened a private school for the white children.

The above was a great embarrassment--felt now--but is being handled
in a completely gracious manner by the black community in Farmville
who all remember quite well and are in the process of recounting
through Longwood College there the history of the events in all their
ugliness.   The black community there at the time was dead-set against
violence and actually ushered some of the "outsiders" out of town on
the bus.   They were one of the four co-respondents in the Brown vs.
Board of Education suit.

All of this is coming forward now because the National Park Service
is making it a Landmark, and they almost razed the school but
for the local newspaper publisher's complaints and recognition of
the historical value of the site.

Anyway, my black students just shook their heads.   It's just too ingrained,
and it will continue to raise its ugly head forever.  That's what they
thought--and though I do not join them in their scepticism, I can see
why--in the short run--they think so.

Catherine King




----- Original Message -----
From: Kate Gladstone & Andrew S. Haber <kate@global2000.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 8:24 AM
Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:121] Re: Defining Our Own Racism--Individual


> THANKS to Catherine King for her comments!
>
> She writes, in part:
>
>
> >(Many of my black students say
> > they have no hope of it ever changing.)
>
> Not *ever*? I agree that our entire nation probably won't entirely cure
> itself of all racist/biased attitudes within our lifetimes ... but do your
> black students truly *seriously* believe that, say, the Universe will end
> before this happens?
>
>
> Yours for better letters,
> Kate Gladstone - Handwriting Repair
> kate@global2000.net, kate@WriteMe.com
> http://www.global2000.net/handwritingrepair
> 325 South Manning Boulevard
> Albany, NY 12208-1731
> 518/482-6763 *or*  (for toll-free dialing in the USA/Canada)
> ENTER ACCESS CODE 04 at my new 800 number, 800/394-9482
(800/EX-HW-ITAlic),
> access code 04
>     (remember:
>     EX for EXcellent, HW for HandWriting, ITA for ITAlic ... then, access
> code 04)
> AND REMEMBER ... you can order books through my site! (Amazon.com link - I
> get a 5% - 15% commission on each book sold)
>
>
>
>
>
>



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