Racists come in all colours. I was a minority in the schools I went to in FL (conservative estimate would be 70% black at the middle & high school level). It surprised me at how shocked the black girls were in my home ec class when they found out that I would watch Soul Train whenever we visited my grandmother up in Pierson. The sad thing was I knew more about blues than they did. I grew up with a very liberal musical education but my parents are "conservatives".
BTW, I grew up hearing only Southerners were racists. If that was true, then can someone please explain why Boston had segregated schools in the late 1970's? My parents would have washed my mouth out with soap if I spoke about blacks the way my Yankee schoolmates did. And Daddy would have whooped me with a switch if I ever treated someone bad because of the colour of their skin (but I could be mean to a Yankee
). But I also remember my father walking off a tile job (that we needed to eat) because the homeowner said Mr Whitaker couldn't be in his house. Mr Whitaker was Daddy's helper and had worked with Daddy up until he retired in the late 60's. If they had to work real late on a job, Mr Whitaker would eat supper with us so his family wouldn't have to wait supper on him. Daddy's next helper in FL was also black and we treated him the same except he was young enough that we could call him by his first name. Same pay as a "white" person as well. Daddy said he paid for hard work and knowledge not skin colour. Most of my family was like that (you always have a few in any family that are idiots). Yankees tended to be a different situation. As a group, they were detested and singularly a few were okay (like our next door neighbor whom I named one of my girls after... she was like a grandmother to me). But my wedding was... tense. David's Yankee relatives combined with my FL cracker relatives... but no fights broke out!
David was the first Yankee to marry into the family in 7 generations. Yup... we don't hold grudges!
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