NPR had a long special on race in America on All Things Considered, rather unusual. Caught some of it running errands on my way home this evening.
Black people interviewed took the position that Lott really was using code speech for segregation, and I have to say that I have a hard time seeing it any other way myself.
One thing Lott said that really frosted me and burned me, simultaneously, as well as causing me to breath heavily and have smoke come out of my nostrils (I mean, I really did not like it) was when he tried to excuse himself by saying that he's a Southerner, and was brought up that way, so he couldn't help himself.
Excuse me?
That's a slap in the face to every Southerner who stood up against racism.
Plus which, maybe that excuse would wash about your frame of mind when you were just a kid, but nobody grown up has used that old excuse for decades, like maybe thirty years.
I used to hear good ol' boys mouthing that happy crap, oh, I can't help it that I am a racist murderous son of a bitch, that's the way my pappy raised me.
Get over it.
And if you can't get over it, shut up your mouth and have some shame about it. |
