Black People : Remember When Black People ...

[Chevron Dove]

I remember an experience from Elementary School...

My school had a group called the "Patrol Squad," one for boys and one for girls.
(Really just glorified "Hall Monitors." And you wore a bright orange sash over your shoulder.) lol But, it was a "distinction" to be on the "Patrol Squad."

Now, to be eligible for the "Patrol Squad," one had to have no disciplinary record, be an Honor Roll student, and references from 2 or 3 teachers.

And a "committee" of teachers would "review" all the "applicants" and vote to install or reject.

I met all requirements.

However, there were several White teachers who were adamantly against voting me in.

Now, I know this because my mother worked at my school. She was not present at this "meeting" because she was the parent of an "applicant," but the other Black teachers TOLD HER what happened and what was said....Which was THIS>>>>

My math teacher, a White man, got very angry, even cursed and pounded the table in the Teacher's Lounge at this "meeting" and stood up for me.....He argued that MY grades were better than some other little White girl's grades who "they" wanted to vote-in, instead of me.

So, in the end, yes, I became a "Patrol Girl." lol

And, yes, there were only a FEW Black children on it: ME, another Black girl, and ONE Black boy.

But, if it hadn't been for those Black teachers voting for me and my White math teacher, those other prejudiced White teachers would have kept any Black children off the squad if they could have totally gotten away with it.

Instead, 3 little "Tokens" got in.

This is a great story. It's amazing how these kind of incidents can have a serious impact in later years and if we don't go back and re-visit these moments, then we might be walking around with inferiority/superiority complexes and not even know it. You cause me to remember some of the Civil Rights issues that African American people targeted in order to help us in those young years not have to be subjected to those kind of white people who took the opportunity to knowlingly hurt our spirits when we were so young in the public school systems.

...Some of the ill fruits of Integration...
...Caught between two burdens; Segregation and Integration...

Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, all black schools did not have the adequate support to educate properly and then Integration gave whites the opportunity to place knowingly hostile, evil, racist adults over young innocent Black children and etc.

 

[cherryblossom]

....

Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, all black schools did not have the adequate support to educate properly and then Integration gave whites the opportunity to place knowingly hostile, evil, racist adults over young innocent Black children and etc.

This is true to certain extents; but we, as a People, have always found ways to get around "Mr. Charlie;" and with sheer determination and perseverance, we have succeeded IN SPITE OF his determents.

I once heard a man speak who graduated from my mother's all-Black high school, who said that the first time he ever saw a MICROSCOPE was when he got to college.....His Black school couldn't afford them....But, this man went on to become a DOCTOR.

And, in our poor economic states, we still persevered....My old piano teacher told me that when she was a child, they couldn't afford a piano for her....So, at home, she practiced her fingering on a card-board piano keyboard. Her hands didn't actually touch REAL keys until she went to her lesson, once a week.

This same woman became a music teacher, taught piano lessons from her home, and served on the Governor's Art Council for the State of Georgia.


WE ARE SURVIVORS!

 

[chuck]

Equal...

Separate...

Two different words...

Many meanings to different people at different times...

But...

No 'one size fits all' concept characterized all of the most all black school systems, back in the day:

And we also need to remember this too:

What I'm guessing is the very origin of the concept--usually associated with what we once called words 'community control of schools'-- i. e., those sixties activists familiar with the earlier ones--where blacks shelled out their hard to come by bucks, the ones where the black teachers etc. made real commiments to educate their students, etc., so those black children would have the same resources etc. the whites allegedly or really had, though usually denied by custom and law--to black folk-- by white school board members etc.-- during the era of 'Jim Crow' segregation...

So, from the very beginning, there were those not all that supportive of the idea of mere integration, i. e., as the be all and end all, to resolve our peoples issues/problems/etc.

Flashforward and the troubles which befell those young black high school students in Jena, La is a reflection of their legacy too, i. e., being descended from folk who had went to their own all black schools, then being forced to attend the all white high school (when the black one got closed), not only hardly made them equals (to the whites), or in and of itself an improvement!

 

[cherryblossom]

Remember When Black People ..

...Remember when back-in-the-day Black people used to be followed around stores by White employees/salespeople.....all kinds of stores: Wal-greens, Woolsworth, K-Mart, clothing stores....even in the grocery store, one of the employees ALWAYS had some shelves to straighten up on the SAME aisle YOU were on.

They had to WATCH you so you didn't get a chance to steal anything.

....Oh, wait....They STILL do that, don't they!

Oh well, never mind, I'll come back later......

 

[chuck]

My identity etc. is more than--uh--skin (color) deep--etc.

I. e., do peep or re peep THE RIVER NIGER and the THREE O G'S, "cause it's 're at Phase Two time, y'all...

Though. folks on the inside--here-- stole millions from the school fund, i. e., so don't keep blamin' it all on outsiders either, however much yo and yo (and their cousin yo) share some of the blame for the lame (and insane)...

Feel me?

Peep that too...