John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:
> On Wed, 02 May 2007 00:30:14 GMT, Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Please try to read more carefully what I actually said and not try to
>> bend it to your 'persecuted black' point of view. I'm 58, my dad, gone 5
>> years now, was born in Chicago in 1918 and grew up there in the roaring
>> 20's, right in the middle of it all. Whatever bug you have up your ass
>> about being black don't bother me with it.
>
> I don't have a problem with being black. I do have a problem with
> people saying because they or their relatives had it worse than me or
> people of my ethnicity (on average) I can't point out racism in the
> US.
>
> I simply pointed out that your statement about society being better in
> the late 1950s is not true for black people. That's a simple and true
> comment that you needn't get defensive about. But for some reason that
> sets you off talking about how persecuted relatives of yours were and
> all sorts of stuff that is irrevelvant to my critique of your comment.
>
Accept this then. In the 50's I, as a youth, was unaware of the problem.
My dad never was persecuted for being Polish, but there were some turf
battles over whose neighborhood it was, among the scruffy 1920's kids.
Nothing like the real turf wars that Capone had going on, but sort of a
friendly Whop, Deigo, Polack, Kyke, or whatever slur they used for
another part of town. The major drawback was that everyone wanted to
keep their own language alive and their were Jewish delis that you had
to be able to speak some Jewish just to order. Go around the block and
you had to speak Italian to order. People just had to settle in to the
idea of speaking English and then they all got along. Regardless of
differences in ethnicity, when Pearl Harbor got attacked they all
unanimously decided they were Americans first and foremost and flocked
to join up. After the war, it was a whole different country.
'nuff said.
Bill Baka
