Recently I had an extended conversation with a dear friend about Georgia and the issue of racial politics. She is a former colleague, an historian, a Southerner with deep family roots in the South dating back generations. Now in her nineties, I value her erudition and experience.<\/p>\n
As someone who first moved to the South in 1964, I have been especially hesitant to wade into the debate about race. After all, I grew up in Iowa in a town without any minorities and had never mixed with African Americans until I joined the navy. Living here I have experienced both the overt racism of some people and the altruism of those who long ago decided to accept and accommodate fellow Black citizens as eligible for respect and equality.<\/p>\n
As my friend and I discussed history and race, we concluded that the issue was really socioeconomic more than anything. We agreed that we are all racist; people prefer to \u201cherd\u201d with their own types, and this human proclivity often extends to religion, ethnicity, and even national origin. We also agreed that once one gets by identifying other people using these characteristics, we find that we have many things in common and first impressions are put aside. Distinctions such as race become superficial.<\/p>\n
What really matters are our socioeconomic differences. We tend to accept those who are like us. Whether they happen to be Black or Chinese, it makes little difference if we share similar values. People like us don\u2019t pose threats; they are us. In my town with no minorities, it was the poor undereducated white people that were different because they were not like \u201cus.\u201d They behaved and lived differently. Predictability broke down, making me feel uneasy in their presence.<\/p>\n
Today in Georgia we see all of this playing out. The murder of young Ahmaud Arbery and the sudden obsession by Republican legislators to rewrite the state\u2019s election laws confirm that racial bigotry and ill feelings are still very much with us. Criticism in the Wall Street Journal <\/em>and Republican pundits notwithstanding, Georgians and others might be excused for calling the new election laws \u201cJim Crow in a coat and tie.\u201d Georgia has a long history of suppressing Black votes.<\/p>\n An observation I\u2019ve noted before in these pages continues to haunt me: \u201cWe cannot bow our heads and call it \u2018tragic\u2019 and leave it to the authorities and the politicians who will never protect our neighbors or us unless we require it of them.\u201d *<\/p>\n *Jim Barger, Jr., \u201cAhmaud Arbery Holds Us Accountable,\u201d The Bitter Southerner<\/em>, May 14, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently I had an extended conversation with a dear friend about Georgia and the issue of racial politics. She is a former colleague, an historian, a Southerner with deep family roots in the South dating back generations. Now in her nineties, I value her erudition and experience. As someone who first moved to the South…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n