… was based on a true story, pretty much.
I figure most of you know, but for those who don’t, here’s a link to the Wiki about Strom Thurmond.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 10:35 am and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I can see why that park should be avoided.
ditto.
w00t!! 2nd post!
After reading the wiki site on strom thurmond I still don’t get it.
Strom Thurmond was pretty much the most famous and powerful American racist. Especially given the pasted-on look of the sign in the AGLite I would guess that it was previously something along the lines of the sun not setting on you, if that helps.
i dont get it either, but I’m European, so i dont think i have to… :)
I think she was avoiding trying to explain why a highway would be named after a openly racist (former) senator. I’m guessing they were passing through South Carolina…
that guy’sa punk
My Canadian ignorance prompted me to click on the wiki article. He sounds like quite the character - if you are a card holding KKK member. I think my reaction would be similar to that of the comic, run far far away from the senseless stupidity.
I am also Canadian. I skimmed the crap out of that wikipedia entry. I only really read the ‘Mixed race daughter’ section. Odd that he’d care so much.
when i read the comic this morning i had to go look it up on wiki. i didn’t get it but i had a feeling i knew what was up. they prance around the issue of calling him a open racist in the wiki article quite a bit.
I am never leaving New England again.
XDDDDDDDDDD
I think it’s more of a reflection of South Carolina, he was a politican. He may have been a racist, or just a closet moderate in a conservative state. Read the article. It could be more read that he just didn’t have the cahones to not run on a segregationist platform in south carolina.
Not that I support racism at all. if anything, quite the reverse, but I think it’s so easy to get a misunderstanding as to why people are this way.
Well, let’s set the facts up shall we?
Strom Thruman left office at the age of 100.
Also, he came from South Carolina and this is the real importance.
I come from North Carolina. I don’t condone the south by any means, but I think it’s good to really understand it. People in the south that hate black people, non-baptists, northerners, latinos, and otherwise people that aren’t known well in town don’t make a decision, or at least didn’t, about this. It was just a way of life. That may sound horrible, but when put in context of the failure that was Reconstruction and the Southern economy and way of life, it makes much clearer sense.
Since history probably can’t do it complete justice, I’ll quote from personal experience.
I remember being at my uncle and aunt’s house one time, just shot some pool with my uncle and I must’ve been about 12 or so. We all went inside to watch the Wolfpack game (NCSU’s team on the ACC basketball) and then, Uncle Willis, really nice guy over-all, complains about there being too many niggers on the court. Then, they both turned to me and apologized, mentioning that they were raised a completely different way.
Yeah, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to call BS on that. Sure racism is more prevelant in the South but it isn’t “a way of life” and it isn’t excusable by saying that it isn’t their fault they’re that way because it is. I’ve lived in the south for the last 11 years and I have met many, many people of all different ages and classes who aren’t racist and manage to accept all kinds of people who are different from themselves. I think most people would call that both ‘being a good human being’ and ‘being a good Christian (of any denomination)’.
BS? Did you read properly? I wasn’t excusing racism. Also, the point being made is about an older way of life, not a current way of life. Judging by the perspective of now and judging by the perspective of then are two different things. Racism should never be excused, but to be able to get inside somebody’s head and see the flipside of the coin is useful.
The bs is that you forgot to read that I never excused it. I was merely giving reason as to why people are the way people are in some occasions. We’re part of a younger, newer generation that has grown since the civil rights movement that changed everything in the US. I personally can’t even comprehend racism beyond understanding why somebody might have been prior to. The world was different not too long ago. By not too long ago, I’m talking three centuries, but that is small time relative to all of history, and we are part of a revolution in human rights, backlash against that sort of mentality. it’s better to understand the conservative elements, the justifications that keep that kind of mentality existing even a smidget than to merely right it off and forget it.
When you’re young, you should be a liberal, because if not, you have no heart. When you’re old, you should be a conservative or at least think like one, because if you are not, then you have no brain.
And I’m saying that I’ve met people of ALL generations that aren’t racists. Racist hasn’t been the default for a very, very long time. I don’t need to understand the perspective of someone who’s been crying that other races are inferior and should be held seperate no matter how old they are. Funny that I know 90 year olds who weren’t raised to hate everyone who wasn’t exactly like them.
If you want to talk about three centuries ago, we can do that, but I don’t see how that’s at all relative to your uncle or any member of your family or Strom Thurmond since they weren’t brought up 300 years ago.
FYI, saying “they were raised that way,” is attempting to excuse racism. Saying that it isn’t a decision, it’s a way of life? What is that? People who were abused as children are more likely to abuse everyone around them as they grow up, and that’s just a way of life, right? Why does it need to be brought up if you’re not trying to cut them some slack? People overcome their upbringing every single day without being cut some slack for the way they were raised.
Consider this, now I’m ginger, in secondary school I got called ginger maybe 2 to 3 times a day by people I’d never even spoken to. Recently a mobile phone company put up a billboard that showed a red headed family with the slogan “you can’t pick your genes but you can pick your mobile phone tariff”, nobody batted an eye lid. Shortly after the kevin and perry movie I had people start calling me ginger pubes in the middle of the classroom.
The funny thing is that if people hear that their immediate reaction is to go on the defensive and condone calling people ginger because there isn’t any outspoken groups for us, we don’t have a history of slavery etc so consequently its a different issue and we should take it with a pinch of salt.
And yet what is strange about all of this is that ginger and nigger are anagrams of each other.
Perhaps the general view held towards red heads today is similar to the racist views held 30+ years ago, but obviously to a far lesser extent as I’m unlikely to get turned away from a job because of my hair colour.
Im sorry but saying racism hasn’t been the default for a while now is a pretty ignorant statement. Schools were only desegragated within my parents time.
The supreme court didn’t put an end to affirmative action at schools a few years ago when they had the chance because there are still some areas where it’s needed to introduce some sort of diversity. Racism isn’t gone from everywhere in our country by a lot.
While racism might not be the default, it takes time to train these things out of some families. I’m glad you’ve known people at every generation who weren’t racist - I have too - but individual cases don’t indicate the prevailing attitude for others’ during their formative years.
On a related note, I grew up in NC and knew people who exhibited racist tendencies because they honestly believed white people were better. I also knew people who exhibited racist tendancies because it’s what they were taught. There was honestly no malevolence from some of them, but they spoke the way they did out of habit.
It takes time.
Exactly.
I was trying to make a point not to condone people for racism, but that’s not all a person is and the reasons aren’t so simple as they may seem on the surface.
Honestly, I think it is significant that a people like my family and Strom Thurman at least could admit they are wrong. It’s not saying that they believe any different, but the realization that they are wrong, but it’s been ingrained in them for so long that they aren’t at the point of changing anymore.
You might say that people should always strive for change, but older people are older people. At some point, people become very stubborn. Not unsympathetic or unwilling, just stubborn.
Thank God. I’m a black woman from South Carolina and i get so tired of everyone thinking we’re a bunch of backwoods hicks who are all racist, hate everyone from the North, and that we’re all inbred Bible-thumping morons. And we hate everyone from the left coast because we think they’re loony! ;)
Stop blaming the South, Taty. Bet you live in New England, or upstate New York, or at least some very “liberal” area. If anything, they’re the most racist, and they get away with it on the principles of economics. Just go to a public school meeting, and watch how those white “liberals” bitch about how “poor” children (read: 90% non-white/Asian minority) are ruining their schools…unless they play good sports.
Yeah, just watch Gilmore Girls sometime (my girlfriend is a big fan), and you’ll notice that the only, the ONLY black man on there is french.
Bwuh? When did I blame racism on the south? It is more common there and it is more blatant there but that isn’t the only place it comes from. My whole point was that most of the people I know in the south ARE NOT racist.
What part of “I have lived in the south for the last ELEVEN YEARS” did you miss? The part where it required reading comprehension?
To some extent, I agree that oftentimes racism is a result of the environment one is brought up in, as opposed to having a personal grudge and actively hating a different race. But…mrr…here, let me put it this way:
My best friend’s roommate is from a farm in the middle of no where. All her life, she’s referred to Asians as “chinks”, not knowing that it was a derogatory term for a Chinese person. It wasn’t until she got to college that she learned what it really meant. Does using that word make her racist? Well, no. It was just something she learned from her parents. It’s ignorance–there’s no malice or hate behind her words. But what really gets me is that even though she knows now what it means, she *still* uses it b/c “it’s just a word; it doesn’t mean anything.” Is that racist? To know a word is so loaded and derogatory and to continue to use it, despite everyone around you–including another girl born and raised on a farm–telling you that it’s wrong? She’s made the choice. She can’t blame it on ignorance, on not knowing better anymore. So…yes…racism and ignorance is a product of how you were raised, but I mean…if you know it’s wrong–and it’s clear your uncle did if he had the presence of mind to apologize to you for it–and yet you continue to do it…well, is there even a valid excuse anymore?
Didn’t know the Stromster had a parkway, which I guess they gave him for almost 50 years as a Republican senator, evenhe slept thri the last 5 years or so. Had some congressional page to wipe the drool from his chin, I suppose. Plus, Trent Lott said some really nice things about him, which was expected and got Lott in trouble. You’d think Lott woulda been smart enuff to not praise the 1948 presidential campaign of a card-carrying segregationist on national TV, especially since he was a Mississippi senator himself,,,
,,,,nah, Lott definitely ain’t smart enuff to avoid something that obvious,,,,
It’s funny because we are all full of likes and dislikes. As a race each one of us is capable of positive and negative emotions.
Each one of us can be hateful of something or someone. We just have to be more careful to keep such negative emotions under good control.
We also need to temper such negative emotions with love, wisdom, compassion, knowledge, and understanding. Viva la humanity! ^_^
didn’t it say in the wiki that he had a change of view? *confused* perhaps i’ve read it wrong?
it says he had a change of view to an extent. i know a dance around when i see one. 10 years in the military will give you a sharp for it, even in text. he was all by his lonesome on the ‘Isle of Racist’ so he jumped ship and said he was changing his view on it.
as far as the time frame, south carolina had HUGE racial tentions going on. actually, the whole south had it.
exactly, he “changed his view” when faced with losing elections.
“You know Senater, folks just ain’t too likely to vote for segregationist and racists these days, especially with the rising , VOTING, African American population in your home state. And maybe to be safe Mr. Senator, you should impregnate a nice African American girl then ignore her and your illegitimate child.”
i don’t think we can be totally mean about this. this is something that happened quite a bit during the mid to late 1800s and somewhat into the 1900s as well (obviously). more often than not though, the cause of a child born of a mixed couple during that time was due to rape and not of a concenting nature. i don’t want to point fingers and say that he raped her mother since 1) i wasn’t there 2) there is nothing that says that he did.
oh, i never meant to imply rape. maybe just a hypocritical seduction,,,,
heh, I got it immediately. guy’s a jerk, we know it. I’m from Savanna, GA and even some of us still know who this jerk off is. But once i saw the comic strip and having to drive Hawk back home, I chuckled. You have to be southern to completely understand it, i guess.
You know, 29 is Lee Highway in Virginia. Heck, we’ve got Lee everything from parks to high schools. Arlington National Cemetery was his front yard and just a few years ago, we had the state’s RE Lee day on the national MLK Jr. day. Don’t you guys work in VA? I think it’s a lot easier to notice wrong headed things farther away from home.
Only reason Lee fought for the South was because his home state went with the South, and in the end he had to protect his home. A distant government that cares little for half of its member states is hardly home. If Virginia had remained with the Union, he would have worn blue instead of gray.
Nothing wrong with Lee. Actually, there’s more wrong with Lincoln than there was with Lee. Lincoln had slaves until the day he died.
Someday, if you get board, read the Emancipation Proclamation. It only frees the slaves in the “rebel” states, but says nothing about slaves still existing within the union. The whole point of that thing was to turn the war away from States’ rights into a war about slavery so that it would be too political for Great Britain to get involved and help the Confederacy.
Okay, as much as I don’t like the guy, you can’t really say that he ignored his daughter. He made sure he was taken care of, and obviously kept in contact with her. She “was granted a degree of access to the Senator more appropriate to a family member”.
He wouldn’t have been able to help her (at least financially) as much as he did if he hadn’t stayed in office. Her coming out publicly wouldn’t have benefited either of them if it had alienated enough of his supporters to put him out of a job.
Okay, this was supposed to be posted under trowelblister’s note up there. *points* I fail at this message board. :)
ignored, no. ashamed of and hidden? i think maybe. actually, definitely. and i gotta say, there’s not a bit of your second paragraph i can agree with. Senator or not, he was a rich old southern guy, he didn’t need his congressional pay to support her. and losing support and losing an election could have only been a good thing for a large number of people.
I don’t think naming roads after Robert E. Lee is wrong, last I heard the guy freed his slaves.
As for Strom Thrumond, read the 60 minutes interview with his illigetimate daughter. It’s interesting.
When the strip first went up I went to Wiki…and I’m still confused about this guy. So contradictory, but a couple of his quotes made whatever moderate ‘Don’t know, don’t care’ levels I have towards people I don’t know go down quickly. x-x Blech!
You know, I’m rather reminded of the public school in The Boondocks that’s named after J. Edgar Hoover.
Taty…
Thanks. I gave a link of this letter in my blog….