racism in the south

this is quite upsetting. living in tn these last few years has been a eye opener. I am still shocked at some incident of racism/rudeness directed toward someone based on the color of their skin. And shocked again to realize that this is common here. Still !!

i was disgusted when the owner of our local restaurant refused to serve a worker from the tobacco field - based on the color of his skin. I hear it in the way some of these 'southern born and bred' folks talk at the local grocery store.
Many of the folks around here (pop. 450) are farmers and still carry the attitudes of their upbringing.

I'm not surprised though that it goes both ways. Caucasian, Black, Asian, Spanish, Middle Eastern - you name it. If you encounter someone that you perceive as 'different' than you, you more than likely have some preconceived notion about that person whether you want to or not. This is one of the problems we have to address when struggling to end racism among our peoples.
What we tell our children, how we ourselves feel and believe, how we react to others that behave in an inappropriate manner to someone based on their appearance and how we ourselves behave.

I remember my own mother in the 60's saying we could not drink out of a water fountain because a "colored" person had. I was extremely confused as I had never heard either of my parents express any bias towards a race or culture before. I, not even understanding the concept of racism and then to hear my mother say something like that?. It blew my mind. (It was the only time I ever heard her make a statement like that and believe she took a good hard look at her belief system/values and made the necessary adjustments to filter out the trash bin that horrid thought came from - thank goodness.)

I myself have a problem with certain behavioral norms in some cultures - but that does not by any means include a language or skin color prejudice. I could care less what color your skin is, or what language you speak or where your from. If your culture accepts or encourages abuse of human rights as a norm, I'm going to speak out.
Racism is a weed - rooted deep in ignorance and narrow-minded thinking. It's up to each of us in our own way to eliminate it. I doubt I'll see it's complete eradication in my life time. But at least we are trying.

Affirmative Action blows BTW and as long as our government is out of control or misdirected .. well.