Proven Wrong

As mentioned before, I spent most of my childhood in a small town in Virginia, and in many ways it was a beautiful place. In many ways it still is. But beneath the idyllic veneer, lurking in the shadows of quaint, colonial brickwork ran an undercurrent of ugliness not shown on any postcard. Bigotry. It was so ingrained, I was often amazed that the townspeople hadn't painted the streets white, so intense was their aversion to anything in “darker” tones.

The one theater in town restricted black patrons to entering by a back door, sitting only in the small balcony, purchasing snacks from a small window at the back of the concession stand (and only if there were no white patrons waiting), and, of course that “old southern standard”, separate bathrooms. By tacit agreement blacks patrons were unwelcome in most of the retail stores, all but one of the three grocers, ALL of the churches, and all of the restaurants, save a small (again back) window at the local Tasty Freeze. It was medieval.

In 1970 the schools were forcibly integrated, the student body became 76% black quite literally overnight. Some of the town even followed suit. A few gas stations, two restaurants, both grocers and the theater. For the rest of the businesses and ALL of the churches, it remained a monochromatic world. As a boy still unfamiliar with the depth of human ugliness, I thought it was getting better. I was wrong.

The main intersection of town was girded by two banks, one grocer, and a gas station. Behind one of these banks sat an old Victorian house that was the home of Emmett and Peggy Bryant. Emmett was a regular golfing buddy of my father, and he and his family, four daughters and one son, were regular guests at our house throughout my childhood. They were by no means wealthy, but they were happy. Until the 70's.

Shortly after the schools integrated, one of the older girls started secretly dating a black boy. Despite her parents' attempts to end the relationship, she persisted. Until she had to “go visit relatives out of town”, a euphemism of the day for being sent of to get an abortion. Upon her return, she resumed the relationship, and shortly thereafter one of her little sisters followed suit. Emmett had always been an outspoken bigot himself, and this was driving him insane, but his daughters refused to listen to what he called reason. In 1973 other members of the “community” decided to weigh in on the matter. They wore SHEETS!

Near midnight a mob of over thirty men arrived on the family's front lawn. They were all wearing sheets and pointed hoods, and they proceeded to erect a thirty foot high cross not ten feet from the front porch. While the Bryant family huddled in terror inside their home, the cross was set ablaze. I don't know which frightened Emmett most, the blazing cross so near his old frame house, the threats and obscenities shouted at his wife and children, or the fact that he could easily recognize many of the voices shouting as men he had known his whole life! I later asked my mother why the town police hadn't put a stop to it, after all this was right in the center of town. She sadly informed me that many of the town police were busy that night... WEARING SHEETS!

I had originally intended to write an informative piece about the “Jena 6”, six young black students in Louisiana whose recent persecution at the hands of a bigoted justice system reminded me of that blazing cross on Emmett's front lawn over thirty years ago. I even had the story finished and turned in to The Resident over two weeks early (a miracle not soon to be repeated). Since then, however, every single TV news network has run pieces on the situation, several articles have appeared in the papers, and a march of thousands in Jena, as well as similar marches throughout the nation, have at least brought the matter to everyone's attention. David Bowie even caught wind of it in England, and sent $10,000 to the legal defense fund set up for the six embattled youths! Way to go, Ziggy!

If you somehow STILL haven't heard, six young black men are being charged with felonies over a school brawl that stemmed from black students wanting to sit under a tree where ONLY white students traditionally sat. Shades of that old theater balcony for me. My original piece was titled, “For Evil to Triumph...” and it appears on my blog in it's entirety. At the time I wrote it, it seemed that Evil was going to triumph for Good men and women had done nothing. Since that time, however, I am proud to say that much of this nation has REFUSED to do nothing! Funds are pouring in to assist in the boys' defense and thousands are loudly protesting a justice system that either ignores or actively assists the persecution of minorities in this country. I sometimes wonder why they call it the human race, because it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Then people respond in this fashion, and I am proven wrong. My pessimism is one of the few areas in which I dearly LOVE to be proven wrong!

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We all have some prejudices. I myself have one, and I absolutely WILL NOT apologize for or be swayed from it. I HATE bigots! I consider human beings to be, for the most part, intelligent creatures, while I consider bigots, by way of their clinging to long outdated ignorance, to have voluntarily removed themselves from that group. You can either join in the race, or watch it pass you by, but THERE IS ONLY ONE RACE! THE HUMAN RACE!

Should you find such blatant hatred as abhorrent as I do, there is something you can do in your day to day life. When you hear the bigoted joke or comment, be it at work, a bar, or anywhere, DON'T just quietly ignore it. Speak out against it! SHAME THEM! It is the very least that such ugliness deserves. For many who hold such opinions are also convinced that most people around them quietly agree with them, so DON'T BE QUIET! Do not let such Evil persist simply because Good men and women do nothing.