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Warmth Of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
This was an amazing book, and I felt that Wilkerson wrote the book with quiet objectivity. She states early in the book that the system in the South is a caste system based on race. At least in print, she doesn't seem to let the hatred and violence against African-Americans get to her.Mina,
Thank you for posting about your parents. What they have done with their lives is admirable. While I was reading the book, I felt that my father's story could easily compare to the stories of Ida Mae, George, and Robert. My father was born in 1914 in Indiana and was one of 12 children. His parents were tenant farmers who at one time owned a farm but who lost it in the 20s to an unscrupulous relative. They had to move from house to house as my grandfather found work at various farms. When the children headed off to school in the fall, their mother asked them not to wear shoes until it got cold because she didn't want the shoes to wear out too soon. Dad dropped out of high school for a few years so he could help support the family, but he eventually went back and finished at the age of 21. He really wanted to go to college, but there was no money, so since he was already in the North, he headed West to find work. He became very successful because he was willing to learn new things and work in places where others didn't want to go. He didn't have any advantages other than that he was white which was a big advantage in those days. He didn't have to worry about looking at a white woman or having to step off the sidewalk.
When I was ten (1957), we moved to the small town in Indiana where my father grew up. Racism was rampant there. The town fathers bragged about the fact that there were no African-Americans in the whole county. One time when I was about 12, a church youth group from Fort Wayne came to visit another youth group in our town. I saw these teenagers, several of whom were African-American, leaving to go home on a bus. A boy I knew started throwing rocks at the bus, because he saw that there were African-American children in the bus. I was horrified. Things have changed since then, but not everyone has changed. I hope that the racism will die out as the older generation dies.
I think Jane that is what startles me , the older generation is passing down these sentiments to their children and grandchildren. Society on a whole needs to set injustices right, no matter who,what or why; An injustice is an injustice. Wilkerson's book, as you said Jane, addresses racial issues without all the rancor. She presents the facts and readers have to decide what their ethics are. We do need to accept the past , it is part of our history.
One question though, Does everyone think racism will truly be eradicated, or is this as good as it's going to get? I certainly for one hope not, but seeing the climate now-a-days, we still have miles to go.
Perhaps Wilkerson could produce an abbreviated version for the classroom. This really should be read.
Sherry,I do think you have something about the need for the underdog to feel superior to someone else. Someone mentioned the antagonism of the immigrants towards the migrant African Americans. I have no doubt that took place. I suppose at least some of it was that they were competing for the same jobs.
However, I am an ESL teacher and I also know that immigrants today experience hostility and bullying from some of the African Americans at our school. The kids from Burma have been told that they can't sit next to them on the bus, when there is obviously room. A Somali girl had someone try to pull off her veil when she was going to class. Some of the Somali men were beaten up by American inhabitants of the projects - I guess just because it was easy.
I would never imply that this is typical behavior. The kids who are doing it are from the really poor parts of town. It is probably a class thing as much as anything else -you may not have much, but you can make yourself feel better by humiliating someone further down on the social scale.
Unfortunately, it seems to be part of being human.
I agree that this is a heartbreaking book. It's disgusting that not only could people get by with this racist behavior, but it was enshrined in the law. The author refers to the American "caste" system and it definitely reminds me of treatment of the "untouchables" in India.
Yes we still have a racial caste system here in America. Ann you see it first hand. Is it something ingrained or is it a learned behavior? Can it be unlearned?
Learned, I think. It is passed down. That's what really worries me.
Sara wrote: "Learned, I think. It is passed down. That's what really worries me."Am I dreaming I thought, I posted something after your post # 51 and it has disappeared.
That's weird--that's why I corrected my idiotic spelling mistake!
I'm about halfway through, and want to thank whoever nominated this book. Words are escaping me at this point - how did I go through fifteen years of schooling without learning about this?
Maybe someone thought it was inappropriate.I am sorry. I thought you were being funny. If I offended anyone please forgive me.
I am reading the book the way I chose to since my attention is fogged because I'm now back to teaching. Ida Mae's story...along with historical pieces, The I'll go back to George and Robert's narratives. It absolutely helps me continue. Today I had a conversation about race and identity with my new fifth graders. Oh, I wish I could share with everyone. Oh, the things these children still deal with--being called "oreos" by blacks because they are biracial, and being bullied because they are darker. "It doesn't happen at our school," they say. But I know certain things do happen, and as safe as they seem to feel to tell their stories, what stories are still to raw to tell?
No offence taken, Kitty. I grew up in SE Michigan, in an area that bordered on rural/suburban fringes. It always seemed to me that American History classes started with the Pilgrims, worked their way through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, hit a little bit on the Reconstruction and Manifest Destiny, and then it was June and the school year was over. September would roll around, and we'd be back making Pilgrim diaramas again. History classes, in general, are inadequate. I was a junior in high school before I learned about the Holocaust.
Wow Peggy. I think I learned about the holocaust in junior high .I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank in seventh grade.I grew up in Southern Ohio.
I think that it is important to remember, and I think that Wilkerson makes this point very well, that there is a huge difference between prejudice, which seems to be an ugly but common condition of humanity, and institutionalized, legalized racism as exemplified in the Jim Crow south. While we still have plenty of problems in this country, it was a major achievement to eliminate the elaborate system of laws that kept everyone, white or black, restricted to particular arenas of life. If, for example, Sherry and I wanted to go out for a cup of coffee and take the bus to a public library together, in the Jim Crow south we would be legally prevented from doing so. Very few countries have ever had a system of laws like that and I have no fear that we could ever return to such an evil system. Wilkerson also makes clear that black people in the south lived literally in fear of losing their lives for a casual misstep. My grandfather's family started out in Georgia, but ended up in Texas by escaping, one state at a time, after some tiny altercation with a white person. With all of the problems we have now, I do not live here in Georgia in fear for my life. We now have the force of law on the side of equality, and that means a lot.
I should clarify, now that I've thought about it some more. I don't remember "officially" learning about the Holocaust until high school, but I had to have known about it, because I was a voracious reader. I didn't read Anne Frank until I was an adult, but I do remember reading a similar book about a young Polish girl sent with her family to a labor camp. It was more like the "reality" of it didn't hit me until that class in high school - that it was something that happened in the real world, not just the pages of a book (where everything else happened). I clearly remember asking the teacher, "But why didn't anyone DO anything about it?"
Yes Wilhelmina, we went a little off track, thank you for the gentle nudge back on track. I guess growing up in the north I did not see job or school segregation, but I seen plenty of prejudices. I had a friend in grade school who happened to be a black boy, we studied together, but both of us were ridiculed . We some how both came through with minimum scars. I moved and lost contact, but he was a wonderful young man who took a chunky little white girl under his tutelage. He later went on to become a first rate teacher.
Little tidbit about Orange County, Ca. We have a checkered past.http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing...
California Jim Crow Laws:
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts...
Ohio Jim Crow Laws:
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts...
Did your state or community have such laws? It would be interesting to see what each state put into law concerning racism.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ewh442/2...I was born in Greenville, Texas, where there was a big neon sign across main street that read:
"The Blackest Land and the Whitest People"
It hung there for all to see until the late 1960s.
Shameful.
(Wilhelmina, you probably know that Greenville is on down the road south of Dennison.)
Here are the Jim Crow laws for NC. I'm too disgusted to read more than just a couple. I know NC was big on "separate but equal." Yeah, sure.http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts...
From Sherry's link:"1947: Public accommodations [Statute]
Called for racial restrictions for the burial of the dead at cemeteries"
Jeez, even after death! What was the penalty? I mean if you are already dead, what more would they do to you?
Zorro wrote: "http://www.flickr.com/photos/ewh442/2...I was born in Greenville, Texas, where there was a big neon sign across main street that read:
"The Blackest Land and the Whitest People"
It hun..."
O. My. Gawd.
Sherry wrote: "Here are the Jim Crow laws for NC. I'm too disgusted to read more than just a couple. I know NC was big on "separate but equal." Yeah, sure.http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts......"
The detail of this list is horrifying.
I can't wait to read this book-I am going to download it today and get to reading. I've been following the disccussion but just haven't had time to get to the book until today. I grew up in the 70"s and 80"s in the south (north Florida) and can tell you that racism was rampant in my community. The community was about 60% African American and there was a tremendous effort to segregate, except in the public schools. I can honestly say that unfortunately I still see it a lot. You will very rarely see a person who is black in a "white church" there still. And, yes, unfortunately the older generations have passed those horrible attitudes and prejudices down to the younger ones. I've heard teens make comments that just blow me away. I believe the KKK still exists and that is just scarry.
One of the greatest days in U.S. history to me was the day President Obama was elected. I don't say this b/c I stand by his politics, but b/c it looked like our country finally started seeing people as people, not groups. I agree with those who say racism still exists and I don't know if it will ever disappear.
Unfortunately people need to find a way to feel superior, and they do this by "feeling better than a certain race, ethic group, social class, religion, ability/disability, and on-and-on). It is critical that we all teach our children and the next generation about equality and character.
Thank You Sylvia for commenting ,if you can find the Jim Crow Laws for Florida, that would be interesting . Type in Florida Jim Crow Laws and you will see the web site. I could do it, but this is another way for others to participate without having to comment if they are shy.I look forward to your comments about the book.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts...Jim Crow Laws: Texas
Twenty-seven Jim Crow laws were passed in the Lone Star state. The state enacted one anti-segregation law in 1871 barring separation of the races on public carriers. This law was repealed in 1889.
SHERMAN, TEXAS RIOT OF 1930. The Sherman riot of 1930 was one of the major incidents of racial violence that occurred in the United States at the onset of the Great Depression, when lynching and other lawless acts increased with economic problems. The incident initiated a flurry of racial violence in Texas. White tenant farmers had exhibited hostility to blacks throughout the county. As county seat, Sherman was the county's banking, industrial, and educational center. The Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching reported in 1931 that Sherman had felt the onset of the depression more keenly than representative communities of similar size in Texas. The prevalent abhorrence of miscegenation, together with the sensation surrounding the rape of a white woman by a black man, provided the context of the violence.
A black farm hand named George Hughes, described by acquaintances as "crazy," was accused of raping a young woman, who was never publicly identified. Hughes admitted that he had come to the farm five miles southeast of Sherman on May 3, 1930, in search of the woman's husband, who owed him wages. Hughes left when the woman said that her husband was in Sherman but soon returned with a shotgun, demanded his wages, and raped the woman. He shot at unarmed pursuers and at the patrol car of the deputy sheriff who later arrived to investigate the disturbance. He then surrendered. On Monday, May 5, Hughes was indicted for criminal assault by a special meeting of the grand jury in the Fifteenth District Court. County attorney Joe P. Cox set the trial date for Friday, May 9, and promised a speedy trial. In the days preceding the trial, rumors spread about the case, among them that Hughes had mutilated the woman's throat and breasts and that she was not expected to live. Medical examination of the woman and of Hughes showed the rumors to be false. Officers removed Hughes from the jail to an undisclosed location as a precaution against mob violence, but rumors persisted that he was still there. A few people were taken through the jail to show that he was not there, but an unconvinced mob gathered outside nightly.
Read the rest of the article at http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/on...
Sherman, Texas is about 15 miles from Denison, Texas, where Wilhelmina's mother was born and grew up.
When one reads the actual laws, all of this becomes even more real. Somehow codifying this behavior makes it even worse to me. It forces everyone to live by these rules even if some didn't really want to, even if some would have liked to get to know there black or white neighbors better or differently.
Zorro wrote: "Sherman, Texas is about 15 miles from Denison, Texas, where Wilhelmina's mother was born and grew up."Yes. My mother would have been 11. The omnipresent threat of violence was something that black families had to live with and yet somehow give their children hope for the future. I can't even imagine trying to manage a balancing act like that one.
Wilhelmina,You are absolutely right that what made segregation so appalling was that it was the law! It seems absolutely incredible, but it was during my lifetime. I assume that South Africa's apartheid was also part of the law, but I could be wrong. Does anyone know if the Indian caste system was part of the legal system, or was it just custom? About 15 years ago, I worked with some very bright Indian computer programmers. Caste played a very important, and sometimes heartbreaking, part in their arranged marriage system. I remember hearing one young man complain about the government affirmative action program for untouchables. He felt this group was just lazy and didn't want to work. Sound familiar?
U.S. History requirements are better now, at least where I teach (Nebraska). We start first semester with World War I and finish with the 2000's. I teach an ESL U.S. History class and I got through 9-11 and a PowerPoint on the Afghan and Iraq Wars. I do remember growing up that we NEVER got to the more interesting recent history.
Ann wrote: ". I assume that South Africa's apartheid was also part of the law, but I could be wrong...."You are absolutely correct about the South African apartheid laws, Ann. It was an even more complex, nationally enforced set of laws, extending to all ethnic groups. By contrast, countries like Brazil which have very large populations of African ancestry have had plenty of racial discrimination but no Jim Crow-type system of laws. The Indian caste system, if I remember correctly, was enforced by society, not by law, although I think that the British may have codified some aspects during the colonial period.
These are disgusting. It is no wonder the migration happened. Does the education system allow teachers to really expose their students to this atrocity? I certainly hope so. The sooner the better. It should be mandatory curriculum, I think. Jim Crow Laws should be addressed in detail across the nation for the injustice that it was and is.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Lawrence Russell Brewer was spending his last hours Wednesday in Texas awaiting execution for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, officials said.Brewer, 44, was set to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday in Huntsville for the hate crime murder of James Byrd Jr., who was dragged for miles while chained to a pickup truck near Jasper
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/0...
Here is one I seen today about an execution set for tonight in Georgia. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/0...
This man says he is innocent and he was convicted on circumstantial evidence apparently. Fair trial?
Point being, concerning last two comments: Is racism still alive and well in America?
Wilhelmina,It's very interesting that you mentioned Brazil. Brazil did not outlaw slavery until 1888. If I remember correctly, about 40% of the population of Brazil has some black ancestors. In Brazil, there has been a lot of discrimination, but it was not encoded in law. I recently heard Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviewed on NPR about his new book BLACKS IN LATIN AMERICA. He said that it was difficult to get affirmative action laws passed in Brazil like we had in America after the Civil Rights Movement because the discrimination was pushed under the rug and people pretended it didn't exist. They didn't keep records of race like we did in the U.S. As a result, it was hard to legislate remedies.
Ann
I do think the teaching of American history has changed a lot since most of us grew up. In the old days, it was kind of the "my sainted country that never did any wrong" approach. Nowadays, there is much more multicultural input into the textbooks. At least where I teach, there is a lot of emphasis on the Civil Rights Movement.I always tell the kids, we have to study the bad parts of history, so that we do not make the same mistakes again.
"The Blackest Land and the Whitest People"This may well have been the one thing in that town which wasn't racist.
Thank You Ann, for your comment. I don't have children in school now so I have no idea what is being taught. That is progress for sure. An interesting fact about slavery .
Slavery predates written records and has existed in many cultures.[3] The number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history,[4] remaining as high as 12 million[5] to 27 million,[6][7][8] though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world's population in history.[9] Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations.[10] Human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children into sex industries wikipedia
What difference would it have made if the "slaves" were treated as indentured servants and able to work off their debts if they wanted to immigrate? It would have been a far better solution and give dignity to men and women who wanted to start a new life, instead of forced labor for no wages.Can you visualize it. I know it was the accepted practice to have slaves, but why did the whites and other groups classify blacks as sub-human? I can not for the life of me understand that.
Here in Costa Rica, thousands of black workers were brought in from the West Indies by the United Fruit Company to work on their banana plantations in the 1890's. The Costa Rican government promptly enacted a set of laws that imposed legal segregation of schools, restaurants and other public facilities. Blacks were banned from traveling outside of rural Limón province. These restrictions apparently lasted until sometime in the late 1960's. Of course, about the same time, in my hometown of Chicago, "white power" mobs were throwing bricks at marchers protesting housing segregation in Gage Park and Cicero. Chicago remains quite possibly the most segregated major city in the U.S.
Yes, I have to say as a lifelong resident of Chicago, Wilkerson nailed the past and present of this provincial city. Having nothing to do with race, but plenty to do with being uptight, I do believe Chicago is the only place I've been where you can be walking on a downtown street (say, Michigan Avenue) and a person walking towards you will refuse to meet your eyes.
Don't think I would like Chicago then. Are they reserved or just want to mind their own business? What is the harm in smiling and passing along warm smile. It just might make someone be glad they are alive, because someone cared enough to look and them and acknowledge their existence.
Just read an email from Color of Change in response to the execution of Troy Davis. One of the main points they make is that Blacks continue to be disproportionately imprisoned, given longer sentences, and given harsher sentences than whites for the same or similar crimes. I don't know the stats but I'd be curious about the proportion of death row inmates who are black.(I'm actually white, but became involved with this organization online through another advocacy group I belong to. They invite members of all ethnic groups to support their causes.)
I don't know the exact stats either, but way more people of color are put to death than white people.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-...RACE OF DEFENDANTS EXECUTED IN THE U.S. SINCE 1976
BLACK 440 35%
LATINO 93 7%
WHITE 712 56%
OTHER 24 2%
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-...CURRENT U.S. DEATH ROW POPULATION BY RACE
BLACK 1,358 41.77%
LATINO 394 12.12%
WHITE 1,420 43.68%
OTHER 79 2.43%
Constant Reader
Books mentioned in this topic
The Known World (other topics)All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories (other topics)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (other topics)
Native Son (other topics)
Go Tell It on the Mountain (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Edward P. Jones (other topics)Isabel Wilkerson (other topics)
Or it would be seen as lies and propaganda from the "left".
*sigh*
eta--correct spelling!