Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
It’s Not Paranoia If They Really Are Out to Get You
True story: I’ve closely known just one true racist in my life. He was my mother’s half-brother, a dozen or so years older than she was. We’ll call him Elwood. Elwood and his two brothers joined the Navy together in 1942. They served together until separated after the Sullivan boys’ incident. Folks said Elwood was never the same after the war. There were rumors that he had something to do with the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. It was not a topic to be discussed in his presence, ever.
He followed his three older sisters and the paper industry to Houston after the war. The son of a New Hampshire farmer, it is doubtful he had much exposure to minorities early in his life. I’m guessing he developed most of his keen racism in segregated Houston. He was a stout, physical man, just over six feet and well over 200 pounds. He had a reputation at the mill for his natural strength, grabbing and tossing 40-lb. bags of materials with a single hand like loaves of bread. They called him “Yank.” He had a short temper, but it was rarely tested. He remained on the top of an uncontested pecking order until his retirement from United Paper after more than 40 years.
Elwood was not generally a talkative man, but when he did say something, it was often surprising, even shocking. So when invited to family parties and events, he was generally left alone. He seemed to like it that way. He repressed his racism most of the time, in part because he was a naturally taciturn man and in part because, when expressed, it often caused him pain. Of course, he was often disinvited from family gatherings, an outcast for months at a time after one or more inappropriate incidents. He was afraid of no one and, when he got into one of his moods, could say the most horrific and sometimes threatening things.
His first wife divorced him after just a few years and left him in custody of a daughter. I know he remarried and divorced several times; to, as my mother described his exes, floozies. When I met him he had just married, this time to a Jehovah’s Witness. This kept him from attending most family functions, though he never converted from his lapsed Congregationalism. His sisters thought his new wife was kooky but, then again, she was an upgrade from the usual. It turns out she was mentally ill and later had to be institutionalized. Elwood never married again.
His animus was equal opportunity, directed at Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Blacks, Hispanics, Italians, Polish, Irish – everyone. He was also big on conspiracies, the bigger and more outlandish, the better. After his retirement, he moved into a single-wide trailer. He kept a shotgun by the door. One good thing about Elwood? He was never much of a drinker. If he had his siblings’ affinity for the bottle, he surely would have ended up in prison. He died a few years ago, having outlived all six siblings but one, at the age of 88.
Oh, and I forgot to add. He was a staunch, lifelong Democrat. Republicans might not have been first on his list of those to hate, but they were in the top three.
Published in General
Yikes, DK! (Why am I thinking of Jacob Marley?)
Were people really out to get him? I have that feeling myself, these days, especially after reading Victor Davis Hanson this morning.
You did save the best for last.
At least he was consistent, there is something to be said for no surprises.
I had an uncle who was also a life time Democrat and was one of the most anti-Semitic people I ever know. I called him on it often but he had no explanation. He had seven siblings that didn’t have a biased bone in their body .
So weary of the myth of all the racist Dems switching their party affiliation overnight because they only cared about one thing in this world.
The South went slowly red because farmers enjoy Republican patronage.
I was living in Scotland when immigration there really took off; lots of Pakistanis, Indians, etc.
“Darkie”, “Packy” etc were part of the daily vocabulary. My relatives complained about the way they smelled, the way they spoke and the way they did business.
In the late 90s when my brother married his half-Hawaiian wife, some vocalized surprise that my parents were okay with him marrying outside his race.
One older cousin of mine was referred to as “that Jew-hating bastard” by my dad. (My dad never swore; the nickname is testament by how much that guy irritated him)
Oh … my sister and I were called racists to our face (and often on FB) by these same people because we voted for Donald Trump.
The worst racists I’ve ever met were blacks from the DC area, or whites from New England. Chicago whites area close second.
Re: 6
It doesn’t surprise me at all that the people you mention, who are actual racists, voted for Clinton, Annefy. It doesn’t even really surprise me that they were willing to try to discredit you by calling you a racist. A white man I met way back in time (1976) was very candid with me about his racism against black Americans. (I found out later, from someone who knew him better, that he kept those views to himself except when he was around people he trusted would not be talking about him to anyone who mattered.)
This guy was a graduate student at Yale and a pro-abortion Democrat. And I’m telling you he wasn’t just I’m-predisposed-to-dislike-or-distrust-black-people prejudiced. He sounded like the soul of the guy who wrote “exterminate the brutes” in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I’ve never forgotten what I learned from meeting him: Most of the more educated among racists keep it well hidden. So, it might not at all be the case that educated people are less likely to be racists. They are less likely to be heard saying anything that could reasonably be construed as racist.
A friend asked me how I felt about my son marrying a Japanese citizen. I was taken aback for a moment, and then asked him why? “he said, well you know”? I replied I’ll ask her if she planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. He said that; ‘that’s not what I mean? I replied, what do you mean. The reply was never mind.
My son married a girl of mixed Japanese and Caucasian. I never even thinking about it. My granddaughter is a knockout.
I’m reminded of the time in college when I dated an anti-Semite; I somehow found out on our first date after meeting on a student trip. It was an odd experience dating him. His grandparents were from Germany and had taught his parents and him that the Jews were controlling the world. He was quite nice to me, but after the second date or so stopped asking me out. I suspect he was either too conflicted or too disgusted to be with me.
I once dated a woman who one day suddenly asked me if I had ever dated a black woman before. No, I replied.
Good, she said, I couldn’t date you if you’d ever slept with a black woman.
I found her honesty refreshing. And stopped dating her.
She was from Michigan.
You mean you don’t control the world? I’m sooo disappointed. I guess the WASPs have won it back, or the Chinese. I heard that they own everything, except what is owned by the Fed, and of course the WASPs. Then again, I’m a WASP and I control less than nothing. This control thing is hard to figure out, you know?
Imaginary Small Zurich Secret Society < Ubiquitous Giant Brussels Authority
Back when I was in high school I got home one day to learn from my mother that a “colored” family had bought a home about a block from us. My reply? ‘Oh my gosh – what color are they?’ She didn’t take that too kindly. The best part – He was a physician.
Torrance, CA was(and is) a very weird city. If memory serves, they were one of the last cities to get rid of “red lining”; where real estate agents purposefully didn’t show certain neighborhoods to people of the wrong race.
Our Jewish neighbors sold their house to an Asian family; neighbors were up in arms. My father patiently explained over and over that the “Asians” were third generation American – and Californian – and by definition more “American” than he.
Since he still had a horrible accent I can only assume they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.
It all blew over. Before you knew it my mom was babysitting their kids and my dad was helping build a fence. And like many neighborhoods before it, it all worked out.
My husband’s brother married a girl from Osaka. My father in law fought in the Pacific theater during WWII. My father in law was so happy so welcome a daughter – who loved his son – into his family.
And now that I am old, I can appreciate what he felt that day. I have a son in law and a daughter in law and a soon to be daughter in law.
Impossible to measure how much I love those who love mine.
Sweet. I pity people who set out to be against their in-laws.
I don’t understand it. By July, three of my four will be married. To put it bluntly … it means I can die.
I’m a mom – what worse horror than to look to the future and think that your children are alone? What greater solace than to know they’re not?
Yeah…don’t be in any big hurry though.
I hear that! I’m in no hurry. But seeing them loved and married takes a lot of pressure off of these old shoulders.