State Of Race In America
Unlike when I was young and racist people low-key attempted to keep their racist bend “In the family,’ today it has become almost chic to flaunt you’re hatred and/or disdain for non white and non-Christian residents and citizens of the United States.
Of course, that’s not where most Americans claim to stand on the issue of race.
Right?
Well, maybe not.
I do have my own perspective on the issue.
It might not be very different from yours.
I grew up in a family that was very racist and very Christian nationalist. Of course, there are exceptions to that generalization. My grandmother, my mother, and my father, to some degree, have been on the right side of the racial issue. So, I had some good influences, but people like my grandfather, a lot of my uncles, my aunts, and my cousins were blatantly just out there racists. Of course, they didn’t and don’t believe they are. They see themselves as fair people who have no problem with “The right kind of minority.”
In other words, the ones who know their place and stay there.
Almost the entire side of my mom’s family were Appalachian Hillbillies or straight from the Ozarks. Sadly, stereotypes often contain some or a lot of truth.
So, it’s safe to say I had some racist or at least ignorant tendencies in me when I was younger.
Tell the truth and shame the Devil.
In 5th grade, we finally reached the section in American history about the Civil War.
I believe they don’t delve into the war in-depth until high school these days.
It was eye-opening. I was always taught that it was about states' rights or the North trying to dominate the South. In fact, we were all low-key encouraged to take pride in our Confederate heritage.
At that time, I thought that a lot of the northern point of view was made-up bullshit. But I had this friend named Milton who was black, and he set me straight.
Yeah, I know every white (there I go generalizing again) who has had a “seen the light” moment claims to have had a black friend who helped them through it. But with me, it’s true,
I asked if all this was true. He told me about his many times great-grandfather, who’d been a slave in Virginia during the war and escaped to the North and the chaos of the war. He also told me everything he’d been told about how sla ves were treated in the South.
I was gobsmacked. I never realized just how bad things had been for black people in America before the war. When he explained to me the living conditions of slaves that he’d learned from his family, I was shocked. Knowing someone, and liking them a lot, who is descended from people who’d been owned by people who look like me, made me sick even when I was in 5th grade.
Milton and I lost touch due to my mom’s rabbit hopping all over southeast Michigan and eventually Dayton, Ohio. Even though I never saw him again, I will always be grateful to him for slapping some real-world knowledge on me.
In the years that followed, other events showed me how wrong I’d been. Two prominent examples are my paternal grandmother telling me about what the Detroit riots were really like and why they started. And a friend I had while working at McDonald’s, named Koran, explained to me the history of Malcolm X.
But it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Or, get much worse.
In the last six months, the Donald Trump administration has seemingly done its best to shatter the American views on race. Between masked ICE agents (Gestapo) scooping people up off the street and sending them to be deported, about due process, Soldiers and Marines on the city streets of Los Angeles and Miami, and the actual establishment of a concentration camp in America, Things seem as dark as they’ve ever been. Nobody knows just how bad it’s going to get. People say there’ll never be another Holocaust, but this is the way things started in Germany. It’s almost as if they are using Hitler’s own textbook to proceed with their agenda.
Oh, wait, that’s called Project 2025.
The current situation and combined historical systemic general racism also impact my own immediate family. We are not a family of one race or religion. I want to think that we’re very open-minded. But I suppose we won’t know till we put it to the test.
Several years ago. My oldest son married a black woman He’d been living with for a decade, and I got to know her family very intimately. The idea that people I know and love are treated like this is horrifying. I know I should say that how black people are treated should have always been obvious and always at the forefront of my mind. But it wasn’t.
Not until I was once more schooled by a person who knew better than I.
My eternal thanks to my daughter-in-law. You smacked some wisdom into an old man who should’ve known better, but had lost his way.
I love you like you’re my own daughter.
Additionally, but no less critical to the family, my eldest daughter married a man from Jordan who is a progressive Muslim. My granddaughter is half Jordanian. He is a citizen, and his parents have green cards and are prepared to move here at the end of the year, but given the current situation, I’m unsure if they will even be allowed into the country. For that matter, with the Trump administration looking to strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship and deport them, I don’t know what’s going to happen with him.
I am terrified for my family.
If I were a praying man and not an atheist, I would be begging God to show us a sign.
On a side note.
Dealing with the reality that other non-white people, mainly black and brown Americans, are being treated like second or third-class citizens. Based on all of the available evidence, a significant portion of the general public is turning against the Republican Party.
But I fear not enough of them.
I wonder what’s going to happen? Who’s gonna break first? Will MAGA and the GOP continue to help Trump due to their personal point of view? Or will some of them finally abandon him? Will any of them realize that actual human beings are being hurt in this conflagration? Won’t any of them remember where an American is supposed to be, and remember that kindness is a virtue?
I wish I could say things are going to get better. But I think it’s going to get a lot worse because that’s what MAGA and the Trump regime want.
I feel powerless. There’s not much I can do other than speak out. I don’t have a lot of money. I’m. Partially disabled. And let’s face it, other people on the left don’t want to hear progressive rhetoric anymore.
They want action.
I fear the action is coming soon, and we’ll be changed forever. I hope it’s for the better.
What would I say to anybody who is going to visit the United States right now?
Welcome to the Occupied States of America. I'd go home if I were you.
- Josh (07-07-2025)
Of course, that’s not where most Americans claim to stand on the issue of race.
Right?
Well, maybe not.
I do have my own perspective on the issue.
It might not be very different from yours.
I grew up in a family that was very racist and very Christian nationalist. Of course, there are exceptions to that generalization. My grandmother, my mother, and my father, to some degree, have been on the right side of the racial issue. So, I had some good influences, but people like my grandfather, a lot of my uncles, my aunts, and my cousins were blatantly just out there racists. Of course, they didn’t and don’t believe they are. They see themselves as fair people who have no problem with “The right kind of minority.”
In other words, the ones who know their place and stay there.
Almost the entire side of my mom’s family were Appalachian Hillbillies or straight from the Ozarks. Sadly, stereotypes often contain some or a lot of truth.
So, it’s safe to say I had some racist or at least ignorant tendencies in me when I was younger.
Tell the truth and shame the Devil.
In 5th grade, we finally reached the section in American history about the Civil War.
I believe they don’t delve into the war in-depth until high school these days.
It was eye-opening. I was always taught that it was about states' rights or the North trying to dominate the South. In fact, we were all low-key encouraged to take pride in our Confederate heritage.
At that time, I thought that a lot of the northern point of view was made-up bullshit. But I had this friend named Milton who was black, and he set me straight.
Yeah, I know every white (there I go generalizing again) who has had a “seen the light” moment claims to have had a black friend who helped them through it. But with me, it’s true,
I asked if all this was true. He told me about his many times great-grandfather, who’d been a slave in Virginia during the war and escaped to the North and the chaos of the war. He also told me everything he’d been told about how sla ves were treated in the South.
I was gobsmacked. I never realized just how bad things had been for black people in America before the war. When he explained to me the living conditions of slaves that he’d learned from his family, I was shocked. Knowing someone, and liking them a lot, who is descended from people who’d been owned by people who look like me, made me sick even when I was in 5th grade.
Milton and I lost touch due to my mom’s rabbit hopping all over southeast Michigan and eventually Dayton, Ohio. Even though I never saw him again, I will always be grateful to him for slapping some real-world knowledge on me.
In the years that followed, other events showed me how wrong I’d been. Two prominent examples are my paternal grandmother telling me about what the Detroit riots were really like and why they started. And a friend I had while working at McDonald’s, named Koran, explained to me the history of Malcolm X.
But it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Or, get much worse.
In the last six months, the Donald Trump administration has seemingly done its best to shatter the American views on race. Between masked ICE agents (Gestapo) scooping people up off the street and sending them to be deported, about due process, Soldiers and Marines on the city streets of Los Angeles and Miami, and the actual establishment of a concentration camp in America, Things seem as dark as they’ve ever been. Nobody knows just how bad it’s going to get. People say there’ll never be another Holocaust, but this is the way things started in Germany. It’s almost as if they are using Hitler’s own textbook to proceed with their agenda.
Oh, wait, that’s called Project 2025.
The current situation and combined historical systemic general racism also impact my own immediate family. We are not a family of one race or religion. I want to think that we’re very open-minded. But I suppose we won’t know till we put it to the test.
Several years ago. My oldest son married a black woman He’d been living with for a decade, and I got to know her family very intimately. The idea that people I know and love are treated like this is horrifying. I know I should say that how black people are treated should have always been obvious and always at the forefront of my mind. But it wasn’t.
Not until I was once more schooled by a person who knew better than I.
My eternal thanks to my daughter-in-law. You smacked some wisdom into an old man who should’ve known better, but had lost his way.
I love you like you’re my own daughter.
Additionally, but no less critical to the family, my eldest daughter married a man from Jordan who is a progressive Muslim. My granddaughter is half Jordanian. He is a citizen, and his parents have green cards and are prepared to move here at the end of the year, but given the current situation, I’m unsure if they will even be allowed into the country. For that matter, with the Trump administration looking to strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship and deport them, I don’t know what’s going to happen with him.
I am terrified for my family.
If I were a praying man and not an atheist, I would be begging God to show us a sign.
On a side note.
Dealing with the reality that other non-white people, mainly black and brown Americans, are being treated like second or third-class citizens. Based on all of the available evidence, a significant portion of the general public is turning against the Republican Party.
But I fear not enough of them.
I wonder what’s going to happen? Who’s gonna break first? Will MAGA and the GOP continue to help Trump due to their personal point of view? Or will some of them finally abandon him? Will any of them realize that actual human beings are being hurt in this conflagration? Won’t any of them remember where an American is supposed to be, and remember that kindness is a virtue?
I wish I could say things are going to get better. But I think it’s going to get a lot worse because that’s what MAGA and the Trump regime want.
I feel powerless. There’s not much I can do other than speak out. I don’t have a lot of money. I’m. Partially disabled. And let’s face it, other people on the left don’t want to hear progressive rhetoric anymore.
They want action.
I fear the action is coming soon, and we’ll be changed forever. I hope it’s for the better.
What would I say to anybody who is going to visit the United States right now?
Welcome to the Occupied States of America. I'd go home if I were you.
- Josh (07-07-2025)
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