Getting out again

You know, every time this horse is about to draw its last breath, someone comes along and applies life support to it. I didn't feel the need for greater articulation as it simply a benign statement of an event participation.

Let’s cut to the chase and stop playing games. Anyone that says they have no idea why this group or that group has events, months, days, etc. devoted to a recognition of a particular culture is choosing to ignore history or pretending to less enlightened than I feel any member of this board could be. We are all writers and in most cases would be more enlightened than the average individual.

All of the history in this country has not been about holding hands and singing. Much of it was about 3/5 of a human, fire hoses and slavery. For others there was internment, indentured servitude and worse. Many of the culturally themed events came out of a need for the less dominate cultures to express themselves just as the majority population could by default. Time does march on, but to expect all of those prior institutions and practices to be torn down is not reasonable. There is no need for a “white history month”. History is written by the dominate society in any country. These other special months, celebrations came about to instill a greater knowledge and appreciation for the culture/contribution/achievements/worth of that cultural or racial group. The almost mirror society of pageants, magazines, colleges etc came about because there was a long period of time where certain people could not learn, eat, drink water or pray in the same buildings. These things are common knowledge and I think most here know that. To express resentment that they exist now is curious at best.

When you have a group that was devoid of any connection from their ancestral roots due to how they came to be in a country, why would anyone have a problem with them trying to build a connection and recognition in their population of their heritage?

www.missasianamerica.com

http://specialeventsrus.com/faq.html

http://www.giuseppetaormina.com/bqi.htm

http://www.misspolishamerican.com/

http://www.missblackamerica.com/

http://www.indians.org/Programs/MIUSApro/miusapro.html

http://www.worldwidepageants.com/usa.htm

The recognition of history, any history, is not resented, DT, until it is denied by one group to another. At this point in our society, everything that even attempts to celebrate being white is thought to be racist and bigoted. I know you are proud of your heiritage, as you rightly should be, and I know you want to celebrate that heiritage. It is only when you (sic) seek to deny me the same rights that I begin to think you are not seeking equality at all. I am proud to be white, to be from the South, and I am as proud of my heiritage as you are of yours.

I was born and raised in the South, during a time of segregation that I had nothing to do with. I come from working class people who never owned slaves. My family treats everyone who deserves it with respect, with no regard to color or nationality, and yet when I dare to voice any opinion about being white and that I think perhaps the scales have tipped too far in one direction, I am called names. Much of the time those names are called by those who claim to be opposed to name calling, but in reality are only opposed to it when it is someone calling them names. Seems it's ok for them to do it, but not for me.

I think you would object if I posted that I belonged to an organization that called itself whiteauthors, or if I posted that I was persenting my work at an event that took place during White History Month. I do not think of myself as racist or bigoted, but on the other hand I am not a white apologist. I don't belong to the KKK, I've never done anything to hold anyone down, and I resent being villified every time I voice my opinion on the subject.

BTW, the one pagent group that is not represented in your post is Miss White America. Being honest, you know that would not be tolerated.

Don, you are not being villified. We agree with much of what you say. However, I rule here and if I say that DK caused all this misunderstanding, then you can disagree with me but you will have to accept it.

DT should not be required to defend all black groups and organisations simply because he announced that he would be reading to a group of children.

For such an announcement to escalate to the mention of such vile groups as KKK is totally over the top. To continue down this path is completely unacceptable.

DK made a wrong assumption. Get used to the idea.

What a great country and world we live in. As I have traveled around the United States and four nearby foreign nations, I have found that most people want similar things out of life and are not much different than I am.

What I have also discovered is that fear of change is usually worse than the actual change itself. This country and world is changing rapidly. Nations that were mighty in population but weak on the industrial and standards of living scale are changing. China and India are on the rise industrially and economically. They may well be the new power brokers in this new world. China in some ways serves as the bank for the United States and others in the world today. Who knows when countries on the continent of Africa stop fighting long enough to start on similar paths.

I don't know who is reading to my books across the country and truthfully they don't know who I am. Writing can have many points of focus from broad to very narrow. I choose to write very broad, to the point that at one book club meeting the women were surprised to find out that I was a man. I imagine some who have read my books would be surprised to find out what race I was.

I was a debater and public speaker in college and also come from the deep south in Texas. I still live in Texas. I went through the end of segregation, but as I wrote in my last book the most segregated day of the week is the day when many of us go to a house of worship to pray. It won't be too many years that the United States will not have a single ethnic majority.

Rock and roll, bless your soul, the stew is hot and we can all enjoy the myriad of flavors that makes the world go round.

Heaven help us all, I agree again with Dick's statement:

"All this is beyond me."

I still can't see where anyone posted anything offensive.

So there you are, Alice - I agreed twice. And not only that, I also agree with Don H. I also grew up in the South during segregation, but as a child, I didn't question any of it. It was only later that I realized how terrible it would be to not be able to get a drink of water if I were thirsty or even use a public facility if I needed. But the questioning started because of my parents who treated everyone equally.

I still can't see where anyone posted anything offensive.

That's probably because no one did. Being wrong requires an apology just as much as being offensive.

Wrong? I reread every post and I still don't see anyone posting anything 'wrong.' And isn't being wrong a matter of opinion and/or interpretation?

Again, I do not see anything 'wrong' or offensive.

Quite right, Brenda.

Here you go, Don, here's a ning group for you to join:


German White Society

+ Join


106 members

and another:

White Power Musik


+ Join


41 members

Now I have to laugh. Only you, Shelagh, would find something like that...

I'll take that as a compliment ... or did you mean to be offensive?

Edited by the author.

How about everyone just taking a deep breath and relaxing.

Enjoy this red-letter day! Brenda has twice agreed with me. Am I being softened up for the kill, or is Brenda finding new wisdom?

Alice, that line in the story Jack the Tripper was the narrator speaking about all children, but it was the 12-year-old son of the landlady at his boardinghouse that he was thinking of at the moment.

Red letter day indeed! Brenda agreed with you twice and I made her laugh. What next, one wonders?

Just don't get too comfortable. You've heard of the calm before the storm?

You know this could reach out to many issues. My book, Flow On Sweet Missouri, begins with the Civil War in Missouri when my great-grandmother was born on the banks of a coal mine as her mother was fleeing bushwhackers, because her husband was in favor of the Union. (Ann is writing about an ancestor in Missouri who was fighting on the side of the Confederacy.)

My book will never be a best seller in the town my great-grandmother was born in, because they still have negative feelings about those who fought on the side of the Union. Someone told me when they have a reenactment of the battle there they have difficulty finding people to be on the Union side.

But as those who have read my book have said, "This book looks at the war from both sides." I have black people in my book. Out of kindness an ancestor donated bricks for a black church after the war. Yes, it was segregated but he did it out of kindness for a group of people he cared about.

Perhaps we all want to belong to some kind of a group: whites, blacks, Irish, a political party, a certain religion. History is history, but is told from different viewpoints.

I think our world would be boring if we all belonged to the same group or were the same color. I have been fortunate to have traveled the world. Last weekend I went to the movie, Slumdog Millionaire about India. Yes, that was India with the garbage piles and class discrimination. It was India of poverty, but also of people in colorful clothing and beautiful faces just trying to survive. I loved it the movie. I loved India.

I could go on here, but don't want to cause trouble to anyone. One of my favorite historical stories is about Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally. Sally was his wife's half sister. His wife had died before he became involved with Sally. Every year his descendants have a reunion. Sally's descendants have been discriminated against in the past. But DNA has proved them Tom's descendants. However, with many of Sally and Tom's descendants, they appear more white than black. And perhaps Tom dearly loved Sally, his wife's half sister, but to marry her would have been impossible. But I think he was such a brilliant man, he even knew what he was doing for the history of our country. It just took a while for us to get it right.

Enough already,

Carol

I'm probably going to be sorry for posting here again. There are individuals on both sides of the disagreement whom I hold in high regard, and it is so easy to be misunderstood on messageboards.

Like DT, I am a native Texan. I know first hand what race relations were like here before the changes. I know how important Black History Month was to bringing those changes about. It gave African-Americans the opportunity for learning about people they could look up to as role models, and it gave other races, white, Asian, Hispanic, the opportunity to see how many important contributions made by African-Americans had been neglected, or even supressed.

As a fellow Texan, I can understand why DT takes such pride in being a part of this event in Dallas. We have come a long way, but we still need these programs. There are still those who need to understand and accept. He is justly proud of the part he will be playing.

I think I get what Abe means when he talks about the "risk." I've been reading his book about the situation in the Middle East. We are all too aware today of what can happen when racial tensions become as polarized as they are there. His experiences are valid, as is his point.

It is sad that the tensions surrounding this very important issue can still be so volatile. To me, it shows that we all still have a lot of work to do, and a way to go before we can say the job of changing things is done.

Maybe some good can come from this thread, if we can all avoid running to extremes and try to find a middle ground.

Ann

Carol,

My 3rd great grandfather fought for the confederacy, but his wife, my 3rd great grandmother, had brothers fighting for the union. The book is mostly about her, and the tension she had to feel over being in the middle of it all.

That's a big part of why I decided I needed to post to this thread one more time.

Ann

Thanks for bringing the thread back on topic, Ann. We should be discussing the event that is taking place in Dallas not the reason there is such an event. We should be asking questions about the different speakers who will be present and what topics will be covered. We should also ask about the number of speakers and the length of the talks/readings. Will there be workshops? Are the invited speakers authors/publishers/teachers?

Tell us more, DT. We want to learn about what is on offer at this gathering.

My ancestor fought in the Battle of Lone Jack in Missouri. I based my research on that battle on personal stories told by others who were there. What amazed me was the respect many had for the other side. One person had questioned why a Union doctor stayed and cared for the wounded Confederates. His answer, "We are all Americans, aren't we?"

And in my favorite story, the Union commanding officer who was wounded was lying on a cot with his dying brother. A man entered the room and said he was going to shoot them both, he didn't care they were wounded. (I think this person was Bloody Bill Anderson.) Cole Younger, fighting for the Confederates and later with the James Gang, entered the room and threw out the man threatening to shoot the wounded.

In the commanding officer's account, he tells of what an honorable man Cole Younger had been that day.

It is really all about stories, about our times and how we have gotten to where we are: the mistakes, the missteps, and the heroism.

And yes, Shelagh, we need to be asking the questions you mentioned. That is really what it is all about, what this discussion is all about.

Carol

The local Read In in Dallas just happens to be the largest of a national event that has also spread internationally. The local event has national authors, tv personalities and a local dance theatre group involved. The children that are part of some of the local academies perform in skits, recite poems and have been the focal point of the last two events that I have participated in. There's a character called Lyndale the literary lion that the children love. This year the featured guest is actress/author/performer Irma P. Hall who has been in many movies including Soul Food.

Local Read-Ins are held throughout the country at schools, libraries, churches or in your home etc. all month long. Last year I was in a follow-on read in at a church and read from my book Fools' Heaven - Love, Lust and Death beyond the Pulpit. I read a section that included the hymm "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah" which I have heard all my life in church. What I learned while researching that book is that Welchman William Williams wrote the song in 1745 because they had a dearth of hymms. It's amazing of what comes your way when writing a book.

Thanks DT. It sounds like a great event.

Carol

Well, DT,

The presentation should be "duck soup" compared to the battle to describe the event.

I think we all have a very advanced grasp of the fact that this event is for children, all children with no regard to race, color or ethnenticity.

What ages are these children?

Thanks.

Hi Alice,

Good to see you back! DT added a link to the Dallas event on the first post of this thread but the event is international as well as national. The Read-In is sponsored by the NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English). You will find out more about the month long event on this NCTE website:

http://www.ncte.org/action/aari/packetinfo

"The Read-In has been endorsed by the International Reading Association. Over a million readers of all ethnic groups from 49 states, the West Indies, and African countries have participated. The goal is to make the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities."

I made a post to this thread earlier this morning Friday 01/30/2009. I noticed it is now missing, I know the post took because I checked after I posted and it was in there. So who removed and why? I need to know so I do not go over the invisible line again.

Hi AW,

You did cross the line. Until you have moderator status, confine your comments to the topic of the thread and leave the moderating to me.

Thank you.