Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Still segregated proms in Georgia
It's the 21st Century, but this kind of racist bullshit is still going on in America! Well, in Georgia, at least, and last time I looked, Georgia was still in the Union (though maybe not by choice).
Separate proms for white kids and black kids? Separate homecoming kings and queens? And they won't allow a white 'king' and black 'queen' to appear in the same yearbook photo?
Do you wonder at the hysteria over our first black president when crap like this is still going on? They won't even integrate a high school prom, so what do imagine they think about a black man in the White House?
In the 90's, in Texas, we always had a police escort for our sports teams when we went to white schools. Look up Vidor, TX. We played softball there every summer and had many "friends" on the field but no social interaction whatsoever. And there has been some change in the area we lived in. White flight has now taken place in the white town of Port Neches which was next to our town, Port Arthur. It's almost stunning to see my girls (softball players) living in Port Neches and their children attending the public schools there! But the white people left in droves, which happened to Port Arthur in the 60s and 70s.
Wow, Vidor, TX? Incredible. That seems so alien to me, Ann,... but then, my own experience really isn't all that different, I guess. I'm from a small town in Nebraska, and there was never anyone in town who wasn't white.
The Winnebago Indian Reservation was nearby, but it was like a foreign country to us. I was in college before I ever had a classmate of another race or ethnicity, or even one who wasn't Christian (at least, as far as I knew).
Really, race was entirely theoretical where I grew up, something you just heard about on television. I think racism was widespread, but more casual than in the Deep South, simply since it was so theoretical. There certainly weren't any black people around anywhere, so they weren't feared - except theoretically.
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It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
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Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
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To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
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In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
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2 comments:
In the 90's, in Texas, we always had a police escort for our sports teams when we went to white schools. Look up Vidor, TX. We played softball there every summer and had many "friends" on the field but no social interaction whatsoever. And there has been some change in the area we lived in. White flight has now taken place in the white town of Port Neches which was next to our town, Port Arthur. It's almost stunning to see my girls (softball players) living in Port Neches and their children attending the public schools there! But the white people left in droves, which happened to Port Arthur in the 60s and 70s.
Wow, Vidor, TX? Incredible. That seems so alien to me, Ann,... but then, my own experience really isn't all that different, I guess. I'm from a small town in Nebraska, and there was never anyone in town who wasn't white.
The Winnebago Indian Reservation was nearby, but it was like a foreign country to us. I was in college before I ever had a classmate of another race or ethnicity, or even one who wasn't Christian (at least, as far as I knew).
Really, race was entirely theoretical where I grew up, something you just heard about on television. I think racism was widespread, but more casual than in the Deep South, simply since it was so theoretical. There certainly weren't any black people around anywhere, so they weren't feared - except theoretically.
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