I guess it is not surprising that I had some tendencies to be
prejudiced. I went to Public School 76 through 4th
grade and then to St. Michael the Archangel’s school until the 8th
grade. Both schools were in the East New
York section of Brooklyn. For my 4 years
of high school I attended Our Lady of Wisdom Academy in Ozone Park, Queens, NY and
then graduated from St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York
City. In all those many years of
schooling, there was not one single black person in any of my classes. Not a one!!!
Let me remind you, I was not living south of the Mason-Dixon Line rather;
I was living in Brooklyn and attending schools in 3 of the 5 boroughs of
metropolitan New York City-the largest city in the world. I was a little white girl, living in a lily
white world. I was never exposed to people of color except
for what I saw on the television and that was not always a positive
exposure. I heard people say that “Black Bastard” when Martin
Luther King appeared on the TV screen.
I saw people in power and people in governing positions treating people
of color as if they were subhuman or at least not as important as us white
people. I doubt whether my experience
was unique. I don’t think I was the only one to observe and encounter such
things.
I have been told by co-workers and other people who have known me during my life, that I am a "reverse" Racist, in other words I do "too much" for our African-American families and clients. I guess they may be correct, but I believe I am justified. I am attempting, in some small way, to make up for the horrendous injustices that the people of color in our country have had to endure. Having been born 75 years ago, I have lived through and witnessed some of these terrible injustices and I have been guilty of the sins of racism, and prejudice myself. So, please,let me, and let all of us mighty white Americans attempt to make up in some small way for the hundreds of years of injustices inflicted on our fellow Americans because their skin color was different than ours.
Regarding the photograph at the top of this Blog entry:
I was 12 years old on Sep 6th, 1957 when this brave young girl, Elizabeth Eckford ignores the
hostile screams and stares of fellow students on her first day of
school. She was one of the nine negro students whose integration into
Little Rock’s Central High School in Arkansas was ordered by a Federal Court
following legal action by NAACP. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
