I was born into a Catholic family in Detroit that had Irish roots. My dad showed the traits of honor and good character that it entailed. His parents lived in Detroit city as did the parents of my mother. During my childhood, racial issues were at the forefront but it was a lot different than it is today. I think the attitude of most white Detroiters can be described by a story he told me; He had been kicked out of the Catholic school but still hung out at the playground with his buddies. When they fought with each other, the loser would smile, shake hands and take the loss like a man. They hoped to become better fighters but at the same time sportsmanship and honor was priority. You didn’t need a referee since all the other boys were watching and you would be ostracized for doing something dishonorable. When a gang of black kids who had recently moved in came onto their territory, my dad got into a fight with one of them. When the kid realized he was losing, he pulled a knife on my dad. He and his buddies weren’t prepared for this kind of bad sportsmanship but they made do and quickly grabbed sharp tin can lids from along the fence. The other gang left while my dad and his buddies were shaken. How can a fist fight become a matter of life and death? They had to rethink their whole attitude of defense or move away from those people. Most if not all chose to live in the suburbs instead of the city for the safety of their children. My family moved up north, a couple hours away just before the riots.
My parents allowed us to use expletives if they were properly used. They weren’t a part of our normal conversation but only used as words of exclamation occasionally. We weren’t allowed to use two words however: the “n” word or the Lords name in vain. We had a word for people who use the “n” word and that was “prejudiced”. It was wisdom to avoid people who were bad characters regardless of their skin color. Every white person I knew felt the same way and were also disgusted with prejudice. Racist wasn’t a term used much around us because genetic distinctions doesn’t make sense since we are all humans. I had never really met a “prejudiced” person but that changed when I was ten.
The first prejudiced person I met came from the south. The odd thing was that he had a close friend that was black. When he was alone with other whites, every joke contained the “n” word and every social ill was their fault. My brothers and I listened with wonder because it was so irrational. Here this guy had a friend that was black but when he was absent this guy would go on froth at the mouth rages about them. We just concluded he was crazy. The problem at that time was that people like him were holding government offices in the south and were passing laws to oppress the blacks down there. They had designated areas called segregation and this crazy irrational attitude ruled. We were ignorant of what was going on until Martin Luther King Jr and a lot of brave blacks refused to bow to it. Public outcry became so great when we were made aware that the prejudiced leaders lost control. We all admired the stand of the brave people down there. Everyone I knew supported integration and getting rid of the oppression. I met my grandpa later in life who lived in Tennessee. He was prejudiced too. But in the north they are few and far between. But now we have a new word Racism that is used to cover most any inconvenience. The people of the south at that time were in a crisis. Now we need to support those of good character and not take advantage of each other regardless of the shade of tint a person has on their skin. A person who shows up late for work, lies, gossips or steals should be discriminated against regardless of gender, religion or skin color. But those who show good character should be admired.
The Rational Element 