Last weekend I went to Boca Raton, Florida to visit my grandparents. Every time we visit, we go to the same place every morning for "brunch"- the Bagel Tree. The Bagel Tree is an old-folks haven and the perfect stereotype of a Jewish deli. True, the memories and minds of old people may not be as sharp as ours as teenagers, but if you stick around to talk to one, you'll find that they are much wiser than us. They have a wealth of experiences that young people should try to learn from.
I have to say that I never noticed before how ignorant some older people can be about race due to the fact that they grew up in a time when racism was perfectly normal. While on my visit there, I heard one woman say, "That neighborhood used to be so wonderful. Now it's filled with blacks." This shocked me, until it became clear that that woman was not the only racist around.
Some very good friends of our grandparents are an adorable couple named Freddie and Mel. Much to my enjoyment, Freddie is the woman and Mel is the man. As I sat across from them at the Bagel Tree, it somehow came up that I have been studying race in American Studies. Freddie and Mel began to share stories of their younger years in which racism was clearly prevalent, and they told these stories in sheer disappointment of society. It was nice to know that some older people did recognize how unjust racism was and is. One story that Mel told was that he used to hang around on the beach with his friends and every night at 8 o'clock policemen would walk along the shore kicking black people off the beach. Not only were they kicked out, but they were forced to walk along the wet, dirty, gutters rather than walking on the sidewalk. This occurred around the time of Reconstruction, Mel said.
Although racism is not as blatant as it was before, I believe it still exists in our subconscious. We still judge people based on skin color. We still mistrust people due to race. But if we can be aware and admit it still exists, maybe we can have a future free of racism altogether.
Freddie and Mel, I love those names :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that racism still exists, and that we must acknowledge it to move past it, but I don't think noticing it is enough. Like, I'm sure the others in that nice little deli you went to knew that racism exists, but they were ok with spreading it. But then again, can we really blame them? They grew up taught that blacks are bad, so it must be hard for them to just change how they think. Obviously, I wish they would. But it's a tricky thing to try and solve.
Hayley,
ReplyDeleteIt's refreshing to hear about two older people who aren't racist even though they might have grown up in a society that was less accepting of different races then our society today. So often we hear stereotypes about old people being insensitive and ignorant about race. I agree with Kasia that just admitting racism exists won't solve the problem, but I also think that openly talking about race and admitting that we might subconsciously think differently of people based on race can be helpful, especially when teaching the next generation about accepting others.
Hayles, (I also like the names), Nice post on a difficult topic. And a good breadth of topics this term. You might decode "blacks" in the bagel tree example. You also might be interested in The Warmth of Other Suns. It focuses on post-Reconstruction Florida, the era I think Mel is describing here.
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