Everyone visiting here today needs to read this. Rev. Manning and I must be about the same age, and we remember the sweetness of no discord in our communities when we were young. I say, "NO DISCORD" because in our neighborhoods, in our interactions between shopkeepers, neighbors and friends, there wasn't any. In our world, my black friends could go anywhere and do anything. They could reach for the stars and seize opportunity by hard work and education. We paid no attention to difference or color or culture. We lived on an island, south of Manhattan, and our world was at peace.
It is very troubling that after the civil rights movement, things got worse. People radicalized and polarized themselves. They turned into warriors in a war that could have been settled peacefully, with morals and ethics and dialog.
"Tell me how I've hurt you?"
"You've hurt me thus and so."
And fix the problem right there, with reason, good will and and good sense.
We could have done better sitting around a table with tea or coffee and cake in the evenings instead of violence taken to the streets.
I never ventured into Harlem. After high school, it wasn't safe. For anyone. We had polarized ourselves.
I remember going to a party uptown given by a friend. Coincidentally, she was black and dating a young man from Ghana she meet in college, I believe. That was in the very late '60s. Black friends from high school were there. We were very close. I was with a date. It never occurred to either one of us that we would be asked to leave because we were white. My girlfriend's beau, Kwambe, took issue with the fact we were there, and one of my friends came to us and ashamedly said it would be wise for us to leave. We did. That friend became an attorney and we still keep in touch.
What Rev. Manning said was true. The black friends I made had fathers who worked hard and slept well at home. They were strong family men to whom religion, family and education meant success. They were proud of their childrens' successes, in pursuit of a better and easier life than they were able to give them. The American dream. After the civil rights struggle, the family crumbled, giving way to broken dreams and what we have today.
Of course, jobs in manufacturing were lost - given to Mexico first in the maquilladora movement out of the USA. Shipbuilding and steel making (providing good jobs for every race) were systematically dismantled - the jobs going to Japan and other countries overseas. Shoemakers (my grandfather made shoes my hand and supported a wife, 9 children and his sister), were now
replaced by mass production in Brazil, Italy and now China. The clothing industry that supported New England - and that included findings, thread, buttons, zippers, thread, pins and needles, all went to the Orient, along with auto manufacturing. The hosiery industry lived in the mid-south. I believe it packed the tents up and left for China, and the furniture industry in the Carolinas limps but is on its way out. NAFTA and GATT, still in force, need to be rescinded. Jobs and manufacturing made a strong and peaceful United States. By the 90s, we were in very bad shape.
Did you ever ask yourself what would happen if China stopped supplying our shoes?
Of all the entries in Fellowship of the Mind's blog, this may be the best. The blog owner, Eowynn, is extremely careful and selective in what she shares with you. But in my opinion, this is just about the best.
And thank you, David Manning, for your courageous fight for your people's success, integrity and humanity. I wish there were more David Mannings in the world.
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/when-we-were-negroes/
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