a southerner shares his thoughts on race relations, hicks, and barbecue
Very interesting. I’ll be looking forward to the next in the series!
Last week I asked if you’d help me understand America. I was thrilled to hear from people, and hope to feature everyone who expressed interest. Today’s the first in the series.
Cullen is a 38-year old married father of three who lives in Memphis. He was born in rural Louisiana, and has lived everywhere from Arizona to Idaho to Mississippi (with a stint in Okinawa and a seven-month “vacation” in Afghanistan)—first as an Air Force brat, then as an Army soldier, and later, as a government civilian working for the Navy.In his initial email he told me a little bit about his take on race relations in the South. I was impressed that he was willing to discuss this with me and I had to know more! Luckily, Cullen was kind enough to elaborate. I hope you find his insights as interesting as I did!
I’d love to hear more about your take on race relations.
I grew up in a pretty colorblind world because of the military. I consider myself very lucky for that upbringing and I credit my parents for that. So, it kind of pains me to admit that my first real exposure to blatant racism was in the South at the hands of extended family and friends.
My grandmother once had me go down the street to pick and buy some snap peas from a neighbor. He was African American. My grandmother told me something along the lines of, “Don’t let him scare ya. He’s a ‘negro,’ but he’s a good boy.” I must have been nine or ten and even then I was pretty floored by that. I just couldn’t imagine how people still thought that way. That was the past. We were supposed to be better than that.
One of the things that’s moved race relations in the past 20 or so years is the dying off of my grandparent’s generation. That sounds harsh, but it is true.
