When I was little, our next door neighbor, a teeny little Jewish lady named Reba, would have us over for Seder. We had matsos and gefilte fish, but what we REALLY had was a lesson in the rituals of another culture.
WHen you grow up in a rural, mountain, Confederate town, diversity is -- well_ I was diverse because I was a Catholic and born in Conn--So learning about OTHER diversities. other cultures, was comforting.
She respected ours, and we hers. ANd we didn't try to change the other.
I don't know, though, that the real Southerners were very accepting. I can remember being about 12, at the country club pool, listening to these women who were being what I now realize was extremely nasty about the wife of a new bank manager. She was very beautiful with waistlength black hair and three small children, and they refused to speak to her at all. My mother told me it was just ignorance.
I also remember this boy I had a huge crush on who told me he couldn't date me becuase I was a Catholic and not a real Christian and I was going to burn in hell.
There is plenty of nastiness to go around on all sides.
Most of it arises from fear and I don't know how you overcome that. |
