by Marcia Kowelman

Created on: March 01, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

The permanence of racism will last until the people who think they are being persecuted- grow up and the civil rights issue will remain as long as this country remains a free society. The adults must teach the children that judging people by the color of their skin is not being fair to anyone. If a person respects others then that person will be respected. Even if that person does not get the respect they think they deserve, the comments made about them are incorrect so why whine about it. In my entire life I have listen to, read about and even been involved in racism. I grew up in a family that taught manners towards everyone;no matter who are what you are.

I have grown up in a city that was segregated and still is segregated. But today the segregation is different. Before the crime became too great the blacks lived on one side of the city and the whites lived on the other side of the city. Once flourishing black neighborhoods began to close their business and move to the suburbs leaving a once prosperous neighborhood to turn into shambles and the whites moved to the more expensive suburbs because their children were going to be bussed to a far away neighborhood and left their neighborhoods to the blacks who couldn't afford to go to the suburbs, but still wanted to get away from the crime.

The migration caused the crime to follow the blacks who were trying to run away from it. Why? Because a black person going into an all white neighborhood will be stopped by the police because a concerned citizen has called about a possible suspicious character. And the same holds true if a white person goes into an all black neighborhood the police will not stop you but the people who live there will.

As a small child I remember going into a restaurant and the 'colored people', as they were called then, sat at tables on one side of the room and the whites sat at tables on the other side of the room. Even when they paid their bill they stood in a different line. I did wonder why, but I did not ask a question until one day I was having a discussion with a black friend of mine who explained. He said ,when segregation in public facilities was outlawed my people still sat together. I sat wherever I wanted to.

When I was in elementary school I attended an all white school. Why? Because there were no blacks living in the district. When I went to high school there were 12 black students who lived in the district. We never had any trouble. Eventually we became good friends because my

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