Re: [UUPoly-L] Acceptance, tolerance and liberalism

["David VanHorn" <dvanhorn@microbrix.com>]

> Were you stopped frequently by a police officer for a "random check", just
> because of the color of your skin?  (The common description for this is
> being
> stopped for "driving while black".)


I haven't been pulled over since Disco.



> Were the neighborhood schools where you went rat-infested?  High teacher
> turnover?  Outdated text books, too few, or none at all?


Yup,  James Campbell High School, Ewa Beach Hawaii.
Teachers by and large didn't give a shit.  One in particular BARELY spoke
english.
Typical dialog:  Me: "I don't understand this part of the book", Him, in
impenetrable chinese accent: "No you can't go to the bathroom".... Me:
Shrug..  Occasionally he'd show a movie that had NO relation with what the
class was about, then have a test that didn't relate to the movie at all.. I
passed, damifino why.   Math class:  More long division. We've been doing
long division the whole year.  Ask the teacher a question, "read the book".

We had a "class" there, that only samoan students could take. I forget what
they called it, the VP ran it. Members of this "class" caught students who
were cutting, beat the crap out of them, then hauled them into the office.
I saw one guy who was grabbed, and rammed face first into the broken brick
wall of the administration building, then drug into the office, bleeding
profusely.

Rats, yes plenty. and flying roaches 2-3" long. How many times did you go to
school in water up to your knees?



> Was violence a daily reality, with friends dying from stray bullets?


Not so much bullets, but this was the 70's.  Violence?  Did your school have
"Kill Haole day", where the usual minimal supervision was notably absent?
In Jr high, I had to be bussed to school with armed marine guards on the
bus, due to the "peace protesters" outside the base, who were quite
comfortable with attacking servicemen, their wives, and their children.
In grade school, I got to participate in "Zodiac drills".



> As a teenager, were you followed by security people whenever you went into
> an
> upscale store?


We followed them.  Pisses them off immensely.  :)



> Does your family history go back only a few generations, because prior to
> that,
> your ancestors had their families broken up and sold separately?


Nope, ours goes back about 6 to the days when famine and other forces
displaced them from their homes.



> Do certain people, especially those of a certain skin color, cross the
> street
> to avoid walking near you, or give you an especially wide berth?


Some sections of east LA, back allys of Kaohsiung, Different areas in
Hawaii.




> Did you ever hear other children being told that they can't play with you
> because they weren't allowed to play with "your kind".


I was in first or second grade, (memory fuzzy) when I asked my teacher why
my best friend and I were always picked last for games..  She said "You gots
ta expec that if you're goin to hang around with that black child."   I
decided then and there that NOBODY tells me who my friends are.



> Did you grow up being referred to by your race more often than by your
> name?


Yeah..Haole. Fucking Haole. And more variants.



> Did you have sufficient food as a child?


Yes, though sometimes that's all we had. Dad was military, and away from
home for as much as a year at a time. Sometimes only home for a few days
between deployments. Military pay was slim pickings, and mom worked overtime
to make ends meet.



> Growing up, did you have a home, rather than living in a series of
> shelters or
> being entirely homeless?


Military housing, changing every couple years at their convenience.
Always shunned by the local kids, regardless of race.



> Did you grow up hearing stories and seeing many pictures of people who had
> been
> lynched simply because they had the same skin color as you?


Lynchings, no.  But go to the wrong beach in hawaii and see what happens.



> Are there active criminal organizations that do not hesitate to use
> violence
> that have sworn hatred to anyone with your skin color?


Well, I'm not sure what Farakahn and his bunch are up to these days, but
assholes come in every color.



> David, if you answer "yes" to all of those, then I agree you were not very
> privileged.  If you answered "no" to most of them, then you are among the
> most
> privileged people on the planet, as well as in the US.