There were inequalities, but I’d attribute those more to a thorough breakdown in teaching and familial oversight than any racism, either overt or covert. In the first few weeks of my freshman year of HS I saw 4 different kids (sadly all were black) in various classes who couldn’t read. It was purely obvious to me, yet only one teacher picked up on that fact for one of the 4. I don’t know how much the remedial classes helped him, but do know, to the best of my knowledge, that the other 3 never got additional tutoring that year. I’m sure that you can guess what the future held for those individuals, even if I can’t say for sure. One thing I do know is that they all ultimately quit school.
It’s a terrible thing when teachers are that oblivious and these kids don’t have parents or relatives who are themselves capable enough to ensure that they’d be given a proper education. So, their lives are an uphill struggle before they even reach adulthood. They weren’t second class; at least not by racism, but certainly by academic achievement. Yet it wasn’t through any fault of their own. They literally had adults (of all stripes) who abandoned or neglected their responsibilities to those youth that they were entrusted to care for.
Oh, and the worst horror of it all: we actually read BOOKS, for entertainment, as well as education.
I actually didn’t read much when I was younger. TV, don’t you know. But I least knew how to read. The single most important thing in a child’s education was missing. That is the biggest difference in equality.
A little backstory about my personal past. I played a lot of sports, went fishing and camping at the local lake. I also drank way more than any underage kid should have been able to and did my fair share of drugs. So, I too became a high school dropout. On top of quitting (on myself) so I could “party”, is the fact that I wasn’t very academically gifted or motivated and have paid a tremendous price for that lack of discipline, throughout my life.
Truth be told, I would like to go back to that simplicity. Technology is nice and enables getting to know people from other places much more easily
I agree entirely. I feel exactly the same with one exception. Without the personal computer (especially the Mac), the Internet and the iPhone a humble, self taught, blue collar guy like me wouldn’t have a voice or an audience. Both these offer immeasurable opportunity to this autodidact as well as tremendous gratification in meeting and interacting with like minded individuals.
Anyway, if my whiteness gave me any privilege, it was only due to the family I was born into, which honestly wasn’t much, except for the love I was shown. I was born of truck driver father with a seventh grade education and an accounting clerk mother with a high school education. That’s it. They, themselves, were children of the Great Depression who suffered immeasurably more than I ever have.
Yes, they weren’t privileged in any way and neither am I. They also weren’t racist and neither am I. They were however Republicans and I used to argue with them over politics all the time. Now after having seen the outcome, or more precisely - the aftermath, of the policies I’d advocated, instead of just the good intentions, I have come around to much appreciate and share their perspective.
