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Reflections of Racism From My Youth

This topic has been around forever! I'm sure it always will be, but I have to say after reading many different articles on this subject, I am compelled to relate my own experiences, from my youth.

I was raised in the south. Louisana to be exact, and I never really thought of my own experiences with this subject to be unique,but obviously I was mistaken. To start with, contrary to popular belief, racism was not a dominant theme during the 60's and 70's. At least it wasn't where I lived.

It was a small, rural community of about 1,500 or so. About,60% to 40% white, but unlike most of the articles that I've read, there was little or no animosity between the races. I lived on a dirt road just outside the city limits.

We had three neighbors, two white, one black. We all got along extremely well. We all helped each other whether with the gardens,or animals or whatever. If someone needed help with practically anything, the others were there to help. No questions asked. No thanks required.We were neighbors and that was what was expected. Period.

As children, we played together. Worked together. Whatever! The subject of race was never even discussed.It just wasn't important to us. We were all farmers trying to make a decent living and a decent life for our family's. It was like, we were all in the same thing together.

There was the city folks, and the country folks. We were the country folks and we didn't really understand why people wanted to live in the citys anyway! We ALL believed we had made the better choice to live in the country, and didn't want to change a thing.

All of us would hear about the race problems in the towns, but it never seemed to affect us the same way. This kind of thing would be discussed at the co-op. The Feed store. The Dairy-Made by both blacks and whites, but it was discussed like it was in some foriegn country or something!

If we needed some extra money for something, all of us would go down on the weekends and pick cotton for Mr.Joe. He was a black man who owned the largest cotton fields in the area, and

there was always both black and white, picking cotton in his fields. None seemed any better than the other. There was horse-play and what not constantly between us all. Never once was there any kind of strife, between any of us!

Of course this all changed when my parents got divorced, and we had to sell the farm and move into the city. Thats when I first learned about racism, and what it truly meant.

But, be that as it may, that was a whole different story.The whole point of this article was to let people know, there was a time and place in this country, when blacks and whites co-existed in perfect harmony. Well, maybe not perfect but close! It was done then and life was hard, but the hardest thing was the life! Not the race!

So, in closing, thats why I wrote this article. Most of the others I read were so negative that I thought it would be refreshing for people to know there was another side of this subject.

Something good, right and positive!
My parents used to say, Where There's a will, There's a Way. I believed that then, and still do today!

Learn more about this author, Jonathan Clayton.
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