Check It Out!
I recently saw (again), the film: Stir-Crazy (1980), starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder; it was directed by Sidney Poitier. It occured to me that this film depicted something that Blacks in North Charleston, SC obviously lack, and desperately need: A Functioning Community -- that sets meaningful goals; works together to achieve them; and, gains its Freedom in the process! The "Community" depicted in "Stir-Crazy" included one White Male; and he was not the "Boss"!
During my 20 years as an Officer in the Air Force, I learned a great deal that could only come from that setting, at that time! It was the very early days of our Racial Wars; that are still raging in this country. President Kennedy had not "stong-armed" Industry in ths Country to hire Blacks or Browns for ANY Jobs, other than those traditional, menial, jobs evolved from Reconstruction! In my third year of service, (1964), the President had been assassinated, and Industry was furiously looking for "tokens" to take highly visible, "only" jobs. Those Blacks, who were eager to become "Firsts", flocked to them.
Inside the Military, I had been, since 1962, the only non-white Physicist inside the organizations to which I had been assigned. It was also a time when the "best brains", available in the U.S., could be found serving in the Military! It became, after 1963, a way to "avoid the Draft", INSIDE the military. Those "brains' were kept state-side, and never faced a foxhole! Because my fellow officers were better educated, they tended to me more aware of what was going on, socially. Most bases around the country and in foreign lands, where our troops were assigned, were experiencing racial tensions -- partly due to our Riots and "Busing" controversies, and partly due to long-standing "internal" resistance to President Truman's 1948 Desegration of the Military. We were able to share experiences openly, and many of us did. It was remarkable to learn how many different kinds of "Blacks" there are in this country! There is an equal "variety" among Whites and Hispanics -- depending on the regions they came from and what kind of "Whites" ruled in those regions. A most commonly recurring theme was the importance of "well-functioning communities". We ALL could trace our successes in our early lives to Strong Communities that supported our early education and provived us personal safety. My Black, Segregated Community in Missouri accomplished that! " Integration" DESTROYED that Community!
Those kinds of Communities are obviously absent today in our Big Cities, across our "Sewer State" South, and throw in Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona, and Kansas as border-bastions of Bigotry.
Stay Vigilant! We've all been 'sippin' Poisoned Kool-Aid FOR TOO MANY YEARS!!
Real Change starts with the kind of Politicians we elect!
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