G
Gambino
Guest
agreed.mrplunkey said:Well that leads me to the point I made earlier. Segregation and legalized discriminatory behavior just isn't that far behind us. Do you realize that most 50 or 60 year old blacks remember seeing fountains and restrooms labeled "whites only"? Brown vs. Board of education happened in 1954. So take a fourth grade student at the time -- so about a 9 year old. Now do the math: 2006-1954 = 46 years... 9 years + 46 years = 55. So the 50-60 year old blacks alive today were *there* when we finally decided public education shouldn't be "us" and "them".
The civil rights movement was running full-throttle in the 1960's, and a ton of blacks remember those days because they were there.
Want to talk about long memories? My ex wife's family are deeeep southerners -- Oxford Mississippi. It used to boggle my mind going down there an listening to these 80-something year olds talk so passionately about the "War of Northern Agression". The catch is, when you take the year 2000, subtract 80 years from it, then insert a parental and grandparent generation of about 30 years each you get all the way back to that era. Those are stories that person probably heard on their *own* 80-year old grandpa's knee.
So when will the sensitivity end? I'd guess around 3-4 generations. So let's be optimists: 3 generations x 30 years each = 90 years. Let's assume the bulk of the civil rights movement was over in 1970 (which is pretty conservative too, since MLK was assasinated in 1968). So 1970 + 90 years = 2060 or so... and we're far from that now.
people are fond of saying "the civil war was 200 yrs ago get over it"
for one it wasn't 200 yrs ago, more like 150.
and it's not difficult to connect to peeps 150 yrs ago...my grandpa (still alive and kicking) was born in 1917. he could have personally known civil war veterans (last one died in 1951 i think) and he def knew their offspring.
so it's not that far removed at all