The Mindset 70 Years Ago

Telly03

My first thought after viewing this was that it is hard to believe this racist mindset existed 70 years ago, but then again, we still are not allowed to love who we want... Now the gay couples are up against the same fight, but looking back at history shows that it is not a gay fight, but a long ongoing fight for humanity.

ownerof1000oddsocks

I think that instead of taking ownership for their own feelings, some people use a common characteristic such as race, sex, height, shape as an excuse for that feeling.

Even if you're not 'any of the above' you still have the instinct for self preservation, and that means striking first before getting struck. Perhaps if we recognise and take ownership of the idea that our instincts for survival lead to the opposite, then anti-social trends such as genocide and war may become extinct.

ownerof1000oddsocks

Now the gay couples are up against the same fight, but looking back at history shows that it is not a gay fight, but a long ongoing fight for humanity.

The law does vary from place to place on this one, as you may well know, but here is one story that you may find interesting:

person

My first thought after viewing this was that it is hard to believe this racist mindset existed 70 years ago, but then again, we still are not allowed to love who we want... Now the gay couples are up against the same fight, but looking back at history shows that it is not a gay fight, but a long ongoing fight for humanity.

Yeah, it seems like you could just replace interracial couple with gay couple and the story could take place today.

Dakini

There's a reason Barack's parents lived in Hawaii. Hawaii back then was the place to be (in the US) if you wanted to have an inter-racial marriage and live a normal, quiet life.

AMH

Hawaii, I thought I heard Barack was born on the moon, shhh, it is being published in the inquirer next week.

Lady_Alison

Hawaii, I thought I heard Barack was born on the moon, shhh, it is being published in the inquirer

He was the only president that had to walk around holding his 'papers ' like Ice or immigration was going to try to pick him up....show me your birth certificate?! Lol.

Only in America.

DaltheJigsaw

This was great! Thank you!

Dakini

Hawaii, I thought I heard Barack was born on the moon, shhh, it is being published in the inquirer next week.

No, he was born in Kenya. (joke, joke) You know what people there said, when he got elected: It's easier for a Luo (the tribe that's a low-caste minority in Kenya, Obama's tribe) to be elected President of the US than President of Kenya.

Cinorjer

My dear, this mindset very much exists today in America. I personally know a woman that moved in with a black man, and whose father has not spoken to her for ten years and goes around telling people he'd rather she was dead than married to that ....... (you know what word he used). And he finds plenty of people who are sympathetic to his tale of woe.

And a few years ago, a survey across southern USA claimed almost half the people asked thought interracial marriage should be illegal. These people tended to only have a high school education at most, almost never traveled father than their own state, and of course identified themselves as Evangelical Christians.

Telly03

@cinorjer wow, I didn't know... At least with race it is not legal, but still, that doesn't show much progress

Lady_Alison

If you live in the Bible belt and live in a major metropolitan city, biracial couples are common and accepted.

StaticToybox

There's a reason Barack's parents lived in Hawaii. Hawaii back then was the place to be (in the US) if you wanted to have an inter-racial marriage and live a normal, quiet life.

I don't really think that was the reason, as his mother had lived in Hawaii before that (having moved there with her parents), and his mother and father met there as students.

AMH

I cannot imagine,. I just really can't. I was raised in another kind of family (than limited and rascist) and I am very grateful. I have my teeny issues but geez, this is just a sick waste of time that anyone still thinks like this.

When we were kids my parents did not let anyone make rascist comments or jokes around us. If they had friends who talked that way they just let them go. Even the joking and complaining of the 'other' was not accepted. So I grew up not realizing how people were a lot of the time. (I am 45). That included my grandma, she used the n-word around us kids, must have been before 1975, and my dad told her off so much I never knew her opinions until I was a grown up.

Telly03

@aheerdt yes, I was raised better than this as well. It just goes to show how much influence family traditions plays in shaping a persons belief system, for a lifetime. kudos to your father for bucking the trend, for it made you a much better person.

Dakini

I was raised in a family like Cinorjer describes, and from a very early age, I couldn't understand why the adults in the family held such ignorant views.

'Box: the point is that they met and were able to have a relationship unharassed by others. Hawaii at the time was the only place in the US where you could do that.