There is a thread on another forum about bigotry.  A reply was drafted.  It was not posted.  I just couldn’t see the merit of entering the fray.  So, instead of throwing fuel on a waning fire, I thought this little ditty could be posted on Common Ground and some reasonable and rational dialog come of it.  

Before you read Curtis Makamson’s take on bigotry, here is a short family trace.  C Makamson’s great grandfather (on Mama’s side) was a slave owner and Civil War veteran.  My grandfather (on Mama’s side) was a formerly wealthy man who was ruined by the depression.  My father grew up as one of 12 kids belonging to a tenant farmer.  Daddy grew to be a behind-the-scenes financial and political power.  My background is public education in schools that were anything but lily white.  Thirty four years were spent as an art teacher working primarily with low achieving and special education students.  I am a prime example of a person having way toooooo much education.  It seems that precious little of the stuff ever rubbed off on me
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The election of 1875 has not received a lot of attention from historians.  This was the election that supposedly ended reconstruction.  Some writers (Nicholas Leman, 2006, the latest) call it the “Redemption Election.”  It is an oversimplification to say the things that went on (riots, killings, intimidation) reversed most of the gains former slaves had made since the end of the Civil War.  

The civil rights movements of the 1960’s attempted to bring about change for the minority population.  Much of what was set in place after the 1875 election was openly challenged by civil right advocates.  The civil rights movement of the 1960’s was also accompanied by its own cycles of violence.

People that lived in the interval between these times were effected by them differently than those of a later time whose only contact is through written or spoken One grandfather (long since deceased) took pride in the part that his father, a Civil War veteran,  played in the mayhem of the 1875 election.  My father (also deceased) was a Klan target.  My dad was in the agricultural loan business and loaned money to Choctaw Indians and blacks.  This practice did not suit the local KKK affiliate.  These men represent two generations from the same family, but each with attitudes a 180 degrees apart.  My high school and undergraduate education came from the "separate but equal” era.  After a stint in the Army and graduate school, I became a teacher.  After work on a PhD, which I never completed, I remained a school teacher. Thirty plus years were spent in public education in Mississippi, the state that pays its school teachers the lowest in the nation.  That teaching career began with the entry level days of public school integration.  Its exit was marked by “No Child Left Behind.“

The initial post was about bigotry.  Bigotry is something I have had to deal with simply because I have been afflicted with my share of human frailties.  It is difficult to get excited about working with kids whose background is bankrupt and whose future is grim.  But you keep on.  You stay in there with them.  You even accompany some of the sad creatures when they go to youth court.  They tell you things they shouldn’t tell you.  You tell them you are not going to lie for them and to stop talking about those things within your hearing.  No, there were days when it was not fun dealing with kids who have zero parental support and see gangs and drugs as their ticket to success.

Bigotry is something you acquire by means other than genetics.  It is a learned trait.  No, it is not an inherited characteristic.  But, yes, it can most assuredly be obtained from family members.  A neighborhood can also impart some attributes that must be accepted or rejected, either at a price.  No matter what its source, once it is acquired its practitioners can expertly hone its application.  My grandfather would not have approved of his grandson, me, teaching in predominately black schools.  Is that because of the differences in the times in which we lived?
 
No one lives in a vacuum no matter when they lived.  To a certain extent, we are all products of the times in which we live and the variables life tosses in our paths.  The difference is how we react to those times and variables.  Personal preferences, our background, and who knows what else blend to form our demeanor.  Depending on their own point of view, other people may consider our demeanor as bias.

Curtis,

Would that you and O.O. Howard been able to enjoy a couple of cups of coffee together.

Curtis,

Your thread is quite rhetorical. I believe you answered most of your questions. I agree with you.

I own a book about a prominent New Jersey family during the Civil War.  They were strongly anti-slavery.  One brother married a Southern girl, whose father set him up with a plantation and slaves.  He became strongly pro-slavery, and fought for the South in the war, while his brothers fought for the North.

Where and when we grew up has a major effect on how we look at the world.  I've known Northerners more prejudiced than Southerners and Blacks more prejudiced than Whites.  We'r seeing some of those continued, underlying beliefs now that a Black presidential candidate apparently will be a party nominee.

I'd hazard that very few of us are truly un-prejudiced.  Much as I hate to admit, I know there's a degree of it in me, with multiple aiming points.  I doubt I'll ever shed it all, but can hopefully continue to minimize it.