On Truth: ‘Prejudices Are What Fools Use For Reason’

by Bill Formby

Prelude: I have been wanting to write an article of this type for a while but hesitant to do so because, while the general flavor of this site is generally liberal, this topic definitely skews conservative.

In March of 1770, there was a great deal of tension between the colonists, British troops, and the British loyalists. This was primarily due to several tax acts imposed by the British Crown on the colonists. On March the 5th there was a face-off between the colonists and a single guard standing watch over the king’s money.

The members of the colonists got increasingly aggressive to the point where the guard was getting overwhelmed so he called for reinforcements. The Captain and several other soldiers responded and were faced off against the colonists who, by this time were pelting the soldiers with sticks, rocks, and bottles. A loyalist, fearing things were getting out of hand-fired his rifle at the crowd of colonists and immediately someone yelled “Fire”, at which point the soldiers began to fire their rifles into the crowd killing 5 colonists. A trial was held and the Captain was found not guilty and only two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and were each branded on their thumbs as first offenders per British law.

Subsequent to this a group called “The Sons of Liberty” including John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry began stirring up anti-British sentiment depicting the British as violent people and the colonists as gentlemen. The British were labeled as murdering thugs killing the good people who were the colonists.

Does this in any way sound familiar to some of the events of today. If we move ahead a hundred years to the fights between the Americans versus the Irish who were immigrating into New York in the era of the Gangs of New York because of the Catholic religion. (Not the movie but the actual war between the Bowery Boys and the Five Point Irish Gang). The Bowery Boys called themselves real Americans and the Irish Catholics outsiders. Today is not much different. Of course, the blacks have always been seen as outsiders and not a part of Americana. This has been the case as well for immigrants from Mexico and Latin America. From the beginning of what was to become American to today, there has been hatred and violence against those who were newcomers and or different. Most have had their slurred, hateful names thrown at them.

More than any of the others probably the blacks have had the worst of it most likely because they were brought to this country not as human beings but as property or chattel. Taken into slavery by their own people and sold to be taken to another land to be put on an auction block to be sold again. Generally, they were viewed as nothing more than livestock. As we tall know now they were a primary part of a reason for The Civil War though many Southerners still claim that the war was about State’s Rights. But the only right they went to war over was to keep slaves. Well, the war was fought and the South lost, and that has led to some interesting developments.

In the American Civil War, the South declared itself as a separate nation, The Confederate States of America. I would argue that in most wars the loser foregoes the right to continue to display its flag and monuments to its war heroes. In the American Civil War that was not the case. The “Stars and Bars” of the Confederate Battle flag, though it lost its legal standing with the Confederate States of America as a symbol memorializing the Confederate Soldier, gained a popular momento for various organizations, such as the KKK and as a novelty despite Southern groups trying to keep that from happening. They became personal statements of the South and the Confederate culture. As a symbol, it became emblazoned on everything from key chains to beach towels to decals on cars. In other words, it became a personal symbol of belief in the confederate beliefs and culture.

The personal relationship between the people of the South and the Stars and Bars thus became a connection between a large majority of the people of the South and the cultural identity of the Confederate States of America though they actually no longer existed, but that belief back to connected back to a belief in slavery. This has been a point of contention between black citizens and those symbols. It is also a constant reminder for black citizens that they belong to a race of people that are less of a person than anyone that was not a slave.

Personally, I have no idea what that means or feels like. I happen to have been white all my life but I grew up in the deep south and I have witnessed the different treatment of blacks for a good portion of my life. I went to segregated schools. I went to restaurants that had separate water fountains and bathroom facilities for blacks and whites. I remember young men calling elderly black men boys and other names. Because I grew up poor I have been called a white n****r so I knew it was meant to put me down. When I was pretty young it was not unusual to see white kids gang up on a black kid and beat him just because he was black. I doubt that those white kids have not changed their beliefs. They were like the bullies of today. They like the power they had because back in the fifties a black kid would dare not fight back. Today, if a weak kid fights back he too will pay a price.

So, I might ask, though I probably know, where does this come from and why is it still so prevalent? In the 1950’s I remember Governor Patterson of Alabama calling the NAACP a terrorist organization because they were sponsoring civil rights rallies. He said they were outside agitators stirring up trouble among the local people. Governor George Wallace said the same thing, and they were both wrong.

During this time many of the black people were asking for equality in the right to fair voting rights. Individual blacks had little or no chance in standing up for their rights. Even as a group they had little chance because they were fighting not just a corrupt city hall they were also fighting the KKK. In Birmingham police commissioner “Bull” Conner turned police dogs and fire hoses on a peaceful march to city hall. In Montgomery, they pulled people off a bus on its way to Washington, D.C., and peat them with batons. In Selma, the State Police beat people crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched to Montgomery. Three members of the KKK planted a bomb in a church in Birmingham that killed 4 black children.

I would like to say that all of that is in the distant past. However, a question in my mind now, as I have watched our President encourage white supremacist, and police officers shooting unarmed civilians, have things really changed that much. When I read comments on social media my view is if anything has changed it is only the facade. The inner parts of it still carry just as much anger and hatred as it ever has.

Finally, ask yourself, am I Racist? If you say no, then you are lying to yourself. We are all racist to some degree and the problem is that we are afraid to talk about it openly. This includes whites, blacks, yellows, browns, and any other color that might be out there. Whether we are discussing race, nationality. religion, gender, or any other difference. The problem is that we all have prejudices but we are afraid to pull that ugly mess out in the open and deal with it.

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