Racism

I grew up in South St. Louis. There was a lot of fear and anger directed toward the African Americans in the North and Central parts of town. The neighborhood was overwhelmingly Catholic, and ethnically Irish, Italian, German.

In the 60s and 70s, it would be fair to say that racism was casually practiced, and the N-word was used in polite conversation to approving nods and enthusiastic giggles. As a child, you never know what history might have led to this, (definitely a subject of another post) but I found the hatred aimed at African-Americans bewildering. I took some bullying and taunting because of it. Yet, there was one weakness I had, and that was jokes. My childhood was tough, and I was willing to laugh at anything, including jokes directed toward me. I had a too-well-developed sense of irony as a kid.

We didn't see African-Americans that often. Yes, I heard that so-and-so friend went to North St. Louis and got jumped, but we seldom saw them in our neighborhood. When they came down, they were just as likely to get beaten or harassed as any white kid in a north city neighborhood, except I think, the police would be far less helpful to the victim.

People complain about "political correctness," but if my memory serves, in the absence of African-Americans, racism was constantly refreshed and reinforced through jokes. Yes, whoever could tell the grossest, coldest, racist joke was pretty certain to have some status in the short-term. The way you hate n** was a reliable conversation piece. It sometimes turned my stomach.


The Catholic nuns who taught me deserve criticism in many ways, but I'll give them credit for this: they did really try to teach tolerance in their own heavy-handed way. We had a particular nun who would rant against it. They took us on a field trip to see "Sounder" staring Cecily Tyson.  (The priests now . . . that's for a different post.)

Unfortunately, among my peers as they reached adolescence, tolerance became something to rebel against, even though the source of the racism was the parents. I think that the same people who rebelled against tolerance are the ones who now have more subtle complaints against "political correctness." I guess the jokes are just too good to give up. For a teenager, often times something doesn't need to rebellious, it just has to look that way. The cigarette companies have made a fortune off that.