Local columnist Darryl Owens wrote a piece last week on racism. Today he tells us that he heard from several readers telling him "Racism is over." It no longer exists. Done.
What?
This is most surprising to me since last week a group of very scary skin headed, white supremacists was arrested for hate crimes right here in in their Central Florida "Arian compound."
But nowadays most racism is much more subtle than that.
When we were in Georgia last week we stopped at a history center near a tiny south Georgia town. When we bought our tickets the guy said "I need to warn you, there are about 100 school kids here today." He didn't say so but they turned out to be mostly African American children.
Since this place covered several acres with about 18 separate buildings, we thought that sharing our tour with a bunch of kids wouldn't matter to us. And it didn't. They were divided into groups, along with their leaders, and scattered from here to there. We enjoyed them. They added some excitement to the process.
But the folks in charge weren't happy. Everywhere we went they made negative comments. An old lady in charge of one of the buildings whispered to me,
"I don't like this one bit. But I've been told to mind my Ps and Qs today."
***
What?
This is most surprising to me since last week a group of very scary skin headed, white supremacists was arrested for hate crimes right here in in their Central Florida "Arian compound."
But nowadays most racism is much more subtle than that.
When we were in Georgia last week we stopped at a history center near a tiny south Georgia town. When we bought our tickets the guy said "I need to warn you, there are about 100 school kids here today." He didn't say so but they turned out to be mostly African American children.
Since this place covered several acres with about 18 separate buildings, we thought that sharing our tour with a bunch of kids wouldn't matter to us. And it didn't. They were divided into groups, along with their leaders, and scattered from here to there. We enjoyed them. They added some excitement to the process.
But the folks in charge weren't happy. Everywhere we went they made negative comments. An old lady in charge of one of the buildings whispered to me,
"I don't like this one bit. But I've been told to mind my Ps and Qs today."
***
