I haven't given too much thought to racism in my life. As a white person I haven't had to. I did grow up in Memphis in the 70's and experienced a certain tension around race. I remember the failed experiment with bussing. I remember wondering if my parents were racist. They were older and my Mama was from Mississippi and she never stopped using the word nigger. I remember wondering why there were no integrated neighborhoods. My parents tried to instill fear of a group of blacks in me. The worst thing that could happen to you is having your car break down and then you could be assaulted, raped and murdered usually by blacks. I didn't totally buy into everything my parents believed. I did have a black friend Charlene, my senior year of high school that I dearly admired and loved. I really thought that racism was a thing of the past and blacks enjoyed all the rights and opportunities that we all had. Even though I loved history, I was pretty ignorant of the details of the civil rights movement of the 60's.
I can remember being mystified by the verdict in the OJ Simpson trial. I saw that as a crime against a woman and I felt a gulf between myself and blacks. Then I saw the video of the shooting of Walter Scott in NC and I thought this has been happening for a long time but we are only just now seeing it because of the easy availability of video.
In sept 2018 our church made a trip to Montgomery, Al. I went because I was off work and I like my church people and don't get to spend enough time with them. I really only had a foggy idea about The Legacy Museum and The Memorial for Peace and Justice that we were going to. The whole experience opened my eyes. The words at the memorial were not sugar coated like I'm used to in reading history. They spoke of lynching as terrorism. It was a moving memorial to a painful past that so many Americans do not want to confront.
Earlier in 2017 I was able to go the Martin Luther King Memorial and the Museum of African American History in DC. Both were eye opening. I also made it to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis where Martin Luther King was assassinated. I have some more places on my list to visit when I can.
