Since I seem to be ancient compared to the rest of you, and
since I lived with a vicious Southern grandfather until the
age of 12, I am going to jump into the racism thing.
What is today perceived as racism was then
description. The cafe owner was a greasy cook and had Greek
ancestors. Houseboys were Filipino or Mexican or whatever
their ancestry -- description, not indictment (or not
necessarily).
Incidentally "white" as used by my grandfather was NOT
a color and many/most Americans (self included) were out of
the group. It was a term closer to WASP (white Anglo-Saxon
protestant) but automatically excluded any foreign born
unless specifically from the UK, or possibly Scandinavia but
we had none of those so I don't know.
A neighbor who was "Nigra" (note spelling and
pronunciation) outranked the white townspeople because he
owned a farm and they did not. Because of a severe illness I
was enrolled in a private school and the only one available
was in town and Catholic (non-white) although only whites
could be enrolled. Neighboring farm wives were so alarmed
they visited my mother to council her (not realizing that she
was tainted anyway). I was so confused, and silent, as a
child that I was never sure what I would be grouped with
until I saw a map that congressional candidate David Duke
designed for the resettlement of minorities.
The social order was extremely complicated and as it
was falling apart, writers tended to pick up on the resultant
disorder. I think that writers come from a self-selected
group of highly observant people and hacked their way though
this maze whether consciously or not aware of the
specifics.
Victoria (with a degree in anthropology)
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