What's the Distance between New Orleans and San Leandro?

                   This morning's Comment from Joared, lively responder in Elderblogland.

"is anyone writing about New Orleans? .... it would be quite challenging to capture everything that needs to be said. Wonder if August Wilson, whose plays are so well written, would have undertaken such a script?"

Tapped into my guilty feelings: need to post something besides this one.  Could I lay off some guilt on viewers; only response to it came from knitting friend Njoyia of the Harlem Knitting Circle.  Do only black Americans continue to feel the pain?  Do those who are not black really understand the pain of racism?

Not according to Brian Copeland, whose powerful one-man show, Not a Genuine Black Man, we saw last night.  He brings humor to his terrible, personal story.  Not what we've seen in Richard Pryor:  this is more about us, the white Americans who think we get it but never can.  Because there are not enough of us trying to make a difference.  Sorry, readers, but it is Sunday and you have happened upon my soapbox, a little red hen. 

Let me make it more personal.  It is 1969.  Ron and I have already lived with, as Jews, housing discrimination as others in two places outside New York City-- Oberlin, Ohio and Baltimore. We'd observed the "illness" of racism and its impact on African-Americans and on us.  My hair is very long, Ron has almost as much on top and a bushy beard.  We sit at the after-dinner table in suburban St. Louis with my father and his wife, longtime civil rights activists around school integration.  I asked, "Wouldn't it have been a better strategy to go for housing integration right after WWII...when everyone was feeling positive about "the other"?  They were incensed; I was their hippish, smartass child who thought open classrooms would be a good idea for my child. 

Look at Brian Copeland's website.  Look at the video clip from his hometown, San Leandro, California, a 1971 CBS-TV special.  This was not the South.  How he survived is a very powerful story.  But at what cost to him--and to us?  If you're in New York, the show is on till July 16.  Or, you can buy his just-released book, "Not a Genuine Black Man."

By the way, Eleanor Roosevelt also believed that housing integration was the place to begin.  I'm honored to be in her company.  New Orleans?  Send a check to Common Ground or one of the black colleges, Xavier University of Louisianna. 

 

Comments

[Audrey]

I would like to see the long haired lass and the bushy beau!
I wonder what Cory Booker is going through trying to develop change in
Newark as an educated "suburban" Black man.

[joared]

Thanks for all the info and links posted here. I think the point is well taken re the issue of housing discrimination. I don't hear those I know from minority groups, including neighborhood, broader community friends and acquaintances speaking of the issue as a problem overall now.

While I know from events in our own community, there are a small minority who continue with discriminating views, radical individuals who attempted unsuccessfully in the past to incite conflict with hate messages, but must wonder, what is the status of forward movement over the country?

I spent some early years, later a few as a young adult, living in Ohio during which time I was totally unaware of any discrimination as you have described here i.e. as in Oberlin, which I would have thought should surely have been an enlightened college town.

I have been equally repelled to learn of Golden Lucy's experiences in Cincinnati years ago, which she so heartbreakingly described on her blog.

I know even as a child I would have noted any such stories, events, language, had I been aware, and my mother would have quickly addressed the matters for me, as she provided moral instruction and guidance. Such issues always seemed to be elsewhere.

Were people just not owning the issues as their own, not seeing them in their own communities, not talking about those issues publicly then? Was this, like many topics, something to be just whispered about, and then be careful what you said and to whom?

Here we are now in the 21st century and as much as everything changes, it remains the same. Questions that come to my mind -- how prevalent is the problem? Is the problem diminishing? Is it pervasive only in certain places, geographic pockets?

Certainly I'm aware the problem is strongly connected to economic issues for some minorities as they are grouped together in various areas. There can be little doubt about this nation's current administrative priorities in this regard, when I think of New Orleans. To say we should all be troubled, would be the understatement of all times.

As for the Jewish people, surely there has been a significant elimination of discriminatory attitudes, except for the radical hate groups, the small number who mindlessly follow them? I would also hope the rest of us guard our communities, taking necessary actions to thwart the spread of such venom.

Perhaps because of my associations, which includes everyone, I just assume most others lives are similar, that we feel no need to focus on that area any more, too many other topics, soap boxes on which to climb, and, best of all, good companionship to share.

Why do I begin to get a suspicion the answer to my question is going to bring me distress? I believe I'm quite aware of the ongoing problems most other minorities are experiencing, but please don't tell me, that for the Jewish people, it's much worse than I realize.

[Naomi Dagen Bloom]

Joared, all I can do is present the issues as experienced in my world. You're brave to post here; some friends have sent me emails about your comment to indicate they are puzzled by your assumptions. It's important to exchange, evem respectfully disagree.

[joared]

I'm not sure why my comment here is considered "brave." It is not intended to contradict or discount anything that has been said by you or others here.

I'm simply trying to describe my experience with the hope that it would elicit any comment from others to either confirm my experience as true for them, or that it's not, or it's somewhere in between, or that it depends on the community and a multitude of other factors, or whatever.

Relative to my assumption that housing discrimination is not an issue within the communities with which I am familiar and live, I can only go by what I came to know about my neighbors when we moved here many years ago, and people with whom I work who come from a much broader community. We've discussed some of these topics and they rarely have expressed concerns affecting them. That's all I was trying to share.

Certainly I know of numerous cities where that is not the case, but I was thinking on the micro small community/city level like my own, where people are more intimately involved in community life, knowing each other.

When I said "everyone," I simply meant people from many walks of life, various economic levels, differing cultures and religions. Likewise, the people with whom I come in contact seem to have an equally broad exposure to others.

If I didn't make it clear that the need to combat discrimination is an ongoing issue, then my language was poorly constructed. We've been vigilant in our community, will continue to need to be, have successfully overcome an assault a few years ago; are not so naive as to assume we may not have to rise to the occasion again.

If my assumption is erroneous that other communitiies are not as enlightened as ours; that, in fact, ours is part of a unique minority, then that's what I and others need to hear. That's not to say we consider the issue dead here, but all I was saying was that we can now focus more time and energy on other topics, enjoying each other since that skirmish or battle is done. I know, we know, the war itself, regrettably, seems never to be over.

So, is my assumption simply wishful thinking?

I would hope that anything I might write which would give others reason to question, want clarification, or disagree would elicit inquiry, comment, or correction of my misinformation. Please ask, don't assume the worst.

I certainly don't have all the answers, nor do I even have all the questions at times. I can only share my experience, the concerns about which I have been made aware.

I would certainly welcome hearing more specifics about the puzzlement over my assumptions if what I have said above does not clarify any of that.

[donna]

Joared,

If you live in a rich and diverse community, then yes, it is exceptional. One of the reasons I live in San Diego is because of the diversity of the community. But in my little suburb, it's pretty white and very suburban Republican. I am surprised at some of the attitudes I occassionally hear around me, especially concerning undocumented workers. The ignorance of where the food in the supermarkets comes from and who is picking it is amazing. Just today there was an article in the Guardian about millions and millions of oranges in Florida going unpicked because the migrant workers heard they needed to go home to have any chance of being able to be in the country after immigration "reform".

Discrimination in our society is rampant. There seems to be a need for many people to have someone to look down on and blame for their problems, the low wages, the loss of jobs. They don't bother to look at the real causes - those tax cuts for the wealthy and record corporate profits from stagnant wages seem to be just fine with them. Their heads are full of the misleading garbage spewed by Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts on Fox news.

Enjoy your diversity and appreciate it, but don't assume it is the same everywhere. It is certainly not.

[joared]

Yes, Donna, this does seem to be somewhat of a diverse neighborhood; different diversity now than that which existed when we moved here 30 some yrs ago; but still diverse. I'm sure there are streets with a less diverse group of residents, but I speak to my experience, ultimately, to how I perceive our town as a whole. We have not been in the past, nor will we be without dissension over diversity issues in the future.

As any debate goes on here over diversity issues I can only hope it is occurring in those communities, such as you describe, where it sounds like a greater impact could and needs to be had. We can't rest on our laurels here, nor can anyone anywhere, it seems, I'm sorry to say.

Was able to get a pretty good perspective on some residents' belief systems a few years ago during a school board election based on the candidate support signs in their yards. One of the candidates was someone who had assumed a low profile for 2 or 3 years after his exposure as part of a racist group.

An all out campaign ensued with the help of our local newspaper to inform the public of the background of all candidates. The one in question, regrettably did receive some votes, but the community at large roundly and overwhelmingly rejected him.

Certainly, during both of the most recent national elections, many yard signs were on display, so again it was disheartening to see who some were supporting, but the current administration did not carry the day here. Some yards continue to display signs requesting an administration change, that the troups be brought home.

You are correct, Donna, that for me to assume there could possibly be other communities or neighborhoods like my own is presumptuous. However, I think it equally presumptuous to think there are not. Certainly, the number difference is critical and I would not presume to speculate on what the breakdown is for one type community versus the other in the small little towns like ours across the country.

No doubt there are those who research that information to whom I would defer, then be the first to admit the naivete' of my thinking if my community is much rarer than I would like to believe. I recognize that possibility exists.

With that said, it is a given that energies continue to need to be focused on increasing diversified communities; retaining the ones we have. I would never suggest otherwise. Individuals within each community must bear the responsibility for trying to effect the necessary changes.

They surely do need to get out and vote. Embarrassingly, even in our community, during the recent primary election we had less than a 30% turnout.

I surely appreciate and share your distress with those who do not seem to grasp the issues in the same light you and I do, Donna. What that says to me, and anyone else who might share our mutual concerns, is that there still is a lot of work to be done toward acceptance of diversity in this country.