The 10 Times Button....Racism....

I am going to be revealing my own personal experiences into racial prejudice, misunderstanding, and ignorance. I am a white mature male.
I lived my early years on a farm in rural St. Clair County, Michigan in the 50s and early 60s. We didn't have any Afro-American citizens in our society, not a one. All I knew concerning the Black race was what I saw on TV, "Amos and Andy", reading children stories "Tar Baby" and "Black Sambo", and thumbing through a magazine called "National Geographic". So when one black family moved into our community and their children attended our local school, all of us were curious. I watched them closely trying to apply what I learned from a TV show, 2 book stories, and a magazine to them. They seldom talked to anyone, but only among themselves. They were gone as quickly as they appeared in our school. I look back now and see our ignorance had to make them very uncomfortable, and possibly that is why they moved.
My next experience with an African-American was 'ole' Joe, a hired hand that worked for my father briefly. He mostly kept to himself, but when we(brothers) wanted to converse with him, he gave a smile and talked very practically about farming, the weather, and even car troubleshooting. He was cool, and just the color of his skin made him different from us. He made me less ignorant about the people of different skin color.
The 60s were hard times in the farmlands of Michigan. While we were struggling to make a living from the land, another struggle was going on. The struggle for the right to vote for Black America. The 'Black' struggle, 43 years later would come back to haunt me because through my ignorance, I saw it only as a Afro-American struggle not as an American struggle. My ignorance was revealed by listening to a speech given at a predominately Afro-American church in Atlanta, GA on January 20, 2008 by a guy with a funny name. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0x_TpDris It was not a particularly great speech as I have seen this fellow make, but it was very effective. When I first saw this speech as a video on this guy's web site, this alpha male(eldest of 11 children) began weeping. I thought I was losing my sanity because the only time that I ever cried in my whole life was when I learned my father died. I forgot about it for a day until while watching C-Span on TV, the same video began to play. I began weeping again and I had to shut it off. I had to do some serious soul searching to find out what was troubling me. It finally came to me. It was my view of the 60s civil rights movement. I had always thought it as the Black civil rights movement. I was tragically wrong. It was the American civil rights movement. There are points in all our lives that are life changing; finding Christ as your Saviour, getting married, birth of your children, and this divine revelation was another.
In 1966, I was joined together with many Black Americans by Uncle Sam and the Vietnam War. At that time there was a segregation in the barracks between blacks and whites. There was little communication between us and when there was, it usually was a conflict. I hated it. If you happen to be somewhere away from the barracks, you could have a one on one friendly conversation with a black man, but never when they or us were in groups. Later when we were given final orders to a permanent base, the black and white group problem lessened. When I got to California, I saw race riots on TV in many major cities including Detroit. I turned to another channel and I saw large groups of people protesting the war. We were at war with an outside enemy, and ourselves. The Vietnam War ended abruptly for many reasons, and a once proud, but defeated military came home. We all knew that it wasn't our fault, but nonetheless we felt like failures and were treated as such. Some say the war between ourselves ended, too. I'm not sure.
After the war in 1970, I returned to work at a UAW plant in Michigan where I made friends and among them were Afro-Americans. I remember sitting down at a large table with a group of union workers, some black, some white, and some friends. I am very outspoken, and I said this, "How come we have a paid union holiday for Martin Luther King's Birthday and not for George Washington or Abraham Lincoln?" There was brief silence, then a couple of black workers got up and left, a couple more spoke so madly and fast that I couldn't comprehend what they had said, and they left, my black friends were looking at me and shaking their heads, a few white workers became angered, and left. Pretty soon there was just a couple of us left at the table and one of my black friends scolded me for making such a remark. I asked "Why?" and was answered with, "Because you just don't!" Yes, I agree now that was an ignorant question. I should have asked, "How can we add Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays as paid union holidays?" Instead I had questioned the choice of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. I call my original question a 10X Button question. You get ten times the response back that you put in. My point is that in our ignorance we can cause some deep seated feelings to be released. It is too bad that they are so profound and emotional that we can't talk about them.
From Ms. Ferraro's remarks I see some dialogue coming out that may be helpful from that 10X Button Release. I completely missed half of the backlash from her remarks initially, and some of the backlash that came out was so deeply emotional that it was hard to understand. I never saw one MSNBC guest tell another MSNBC guest to shutup before. They were discussing Ferraro's comments and the discussion became very heated. Knowledge will set you free and ignorance is bliss, to some. I favor knowledge because it rids of us of ignorance. I, in no way defend Geraldine Ferraro's remarks, but I am glad that there is some good conversation coming out of it. There is a line in a famous speech that I would love to share with Ms. Ferraro;
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." From Martin Luther King, Jr., "I have a dream" Speech, August 28, 1963.
That is why we support and respect Barack Obama, Ms. Ferraro. It's his character not his skin color. Please take time to look outside of yourself and you may be able to find the answer. It is impossible to realistically walk a mile in someone else's shoes, but if walking a mile in one's shoes would help, we should be all willing to. If someone living through the 60's can take the time to watch and listen to Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech for the first time, 45 years after it was given, there is hope for all of us.....