Being a Canadian horseman, I didn’t understand the overt racism of the US during the 60’s, not to say there isn’t racism in Canada, there is, but it was never so open and dangerous. The US has changed, the old blatant racism has nearly disappeared; today, it has been replaced with perceived racism. Perceived racism is much harder to define: it is a racism that is often committed unknowingly and without malice. Often it can only be detected by the sensitivity of the victim; so maybe, I still don’t understand racism, at least modern day racism. Yet back in the 60’s, it was much easier to recognize.
I have worked as a traveling horseman or gypsy most of my life; part of the problem with that lifestyle is that you only work and travel where people like you and your skills and are willing to pay for them. I managed to work in 40 states, some of them for just a few days, but for a long time, I had a group of customers that stretched from Long Island, through New Jersey to Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and back again in a never ending circle. Customers die, get divorced, go broke, hire someone else, or sell all their horses; the business is dynamic and always changing. In the early days, I was working in the Lexington area and I kept getting requests to travel further and further east. Eventually, I was working in the Sommerset area, I loved the country and the people and the people seemed to enjoy me, but it really didn’t seem like they had enough money to be paying me the wages I was asking. Yet they kept telling their friends about me and I kept getting more and more work; until, I realized that these people were just too poor to be hiring me; although, unlike many wealthy people, not one of them ever complained about my prices. They watched every move I made with their horses; like they were watching something really important and acted grateful that I was gracious enough to work on their horses.
These country people were some of the nicest people I had ever met and at one time I was pricing farms down there and considered relocating. There was only one ugly incident that stands out in my mind and I can’t erase that experience from my memory. I was working on a team of mules for an old mule skinner who looked to be the quintessential cartoon character of a ridge running hillbilly, complete with tobacco stained chin with several days worth of whiskers, a few oddly spaced yellow teeth, a straw hat, and bib overalls. He was thrilled to watch me float his draft mules, pull their wolf teeth, make a set of work shoes, turn heel and toe caulks, and pull clips. He told me the mules looked like they were ready to go to the state fair.
A neighbor came over to take in the show, he was a handsome black man with a ten year old son. They were well spoken without the thick patois so common among the mountaineers in that area, they were also extremely polite and respectful. I answered some intelligent questions from the boy and his dad told me with obvious pride, that his son would use the information I was giving him in school; he told me the boy had a mind like a whip and loved school. That really made me feel good to be answering questions that were being used to build knowledge in a young mind.
The old mountaineer asked me about remedies to soften and harden hooves and we discussed the remedies that were hundreds of years old. He then started into a story about an old black man who had trouble keeping his feet warm during a particularly cold winter. Apparently, someone told him to put Jalapeno peppers in his boots when he walked to work and his feet would stay warm all day. In theory it works, but the oil from the peppers leached into his socks and started a chemical burn. The man made it to work and had to take off his boots and soak his feet. The old mountaineer thought the cruel joke was extremely funny and said, “That was one hot footed Nigger.”
I was shocked at what the Black man and his precious son were exposed to and expected to endure in silence by this cruel and insensitive old man. While the old man was laughing, I looked the Black man in the eye and he looked directly back at me, for a few seconds we stared at each other in mute communication using a method as old as time. He then nodded with a barely perceptible movement of his head to tell me he understood my distaste of the incident and that he had to bear these indignities in silence.
There was a great deal of communication between us with just the eyes and a slight head movement; to this day, I wonder if I should have voiced my contempt for the old man’s language. The sad thing is, I might have made things worse for the dignified Black man and his son. I wish I could have figured out how to do more, but I feel like I failed and I feel so sorry for that inquisitive Black boy with his innocent enthusiasm that had so much promise for the future.
Those days of overt racism are over, racism still exists, but comparatively speaking it is much milder and sometimes only perceived in the imagination of the overly sensitive. Working in those southern states during some of the most flagrant days of racism gives me a perspective that many have missed, but in the big cities, I have been on the receiving end the so-called reverse racism; although, racism is racism and hatred is hatred, no matter what race is involved in hatred towards another race.
A professional horseman for over 50 years, Skook continues to work with horses. Skook has finished an historical novel, Fifty Thousand Years, that traces a mitochondrial line of DNA from 50,000 years ago to the present. The story follows a line of courageous women, from the Ice Ages to the present, as they meet the challenges of survival with grit and creativity. These are not women who whimper of being victims, they meet the challenges of survival as women who use their abilities without excuses or remorse, these women are winners, they are our ancestors.
Fifty Thousand Years is available in paperback and e-book, it is getting great reviews. You can purchase a copy here; Visit me on Facebook.
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I like Canadian Budweiser, the Budweiser Clydesdales and enjoy Nascar. Therefore I’m a beer swilling, horse loving, racist.
Skook,
Racism is still alive and well. My son played club basketball from 6th grade until after he graduated from High School. We recruited kids from all over the East Denver and Aurora, Colorado area. These kids were very good. We won tournaments all over the west and actually won the CO championship two years. When he was in 8th grade, we were returning from a practice. The team had been set for almost 2 months for the upcoming season. My son asked me, Dad, did you know I was the only white kid on the team?” I replied that I had not noticed. These kids were not concerned with race, they wanted the best team!
After High School, many of these kids who had played together furthered their studies at a local college. None were good enough to make the college basketball team, but they participated in intramurals. My son continued to play pickup games with his old team mates. They were friends. When it was time to start the intramural teams, My son asked all of his old team mates if they would be part of his team. To a man, they told him life would be more difficult for them with the black students if they played on a mixed team. My son got his first big lesson in racism.
Is racism an instinct? If it is an instinct . . . can it be “cured” in 50 years or will it take 50,000 . . . Damn we should ask the Crow why they hated the Lakota (Sioux). Is racism actually a form of genetic preservation? I ask these question not to justify the undeniable devastation that racism causes . . . I ask only in attempt to understand the CAUSE . . . as the effects are clearly horribly bad. Similar would be to try to question why the Nazi carried out the Holocaust . . . to do so . . . is repulsive. Opps, wow what a can of worms this opens up. So I will just admit it . . . I am a racist . . . I just don’t know why. . .
How many blacks are there in Canada? Perhaps if this gentleman’s nation were exposed to some 40 million+ blacks, destroying cities, committing more than 1/2 of his nations crimes, turning welfare into family traditions, responsible for 1$ houses to remain unsellable….perhaps he would have a somewhat different outlook. Not necessarily racist, but certainly realistic.
Tribalism refers to the strong bonds between an individual’s genetic or social pool, the bonds are often very strong and even primitive in nature. One of the most classic examples of tribalism were the clans of Scotland. Fierce loyalty to the clan made fierce warriors, that had the ability to stop the Romans, but not the ability to build a cohesive force with a united front to become a national power. Instead, they were small warring groups that maintained their loyalties to genetic clans and were vulnerable to the English concept of subjugation.
Tribalism is alive and well in the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood is well aware of the hatred of Israel and of the Great Satan and will exploit these feelings of Tribalism to blame Israel for their miserable lives that are mired in poverty and ignorance. Tribalism must have the culprit or bogeyman to blame for perceived wrongs, either real or imagined. Poverty and hopelessness breeds feelings of resentment and envy; those who know how to act as the catalyst will unite these feelings of desperation and select the bogeyman and perpetuate the racism to their own advantage. The Democrat party survives with intellectually inferior leadership by promoting the basics of tribalism to its followers. Putting themselves up as the benevolent protectors of the exploited masses, they create animosity and hatred while ensuring their roles as Elite rulers for decades.
The Muslim Brotherhood will promise the Egyptians that they will get those evil Jews and the Great Satan if only the Egyptians get on board, only then will their lifes improve: the Democrats promise minorities, poor, the unions, the fat cat bankers, and CEOs that they will have their positions improved if we only move towards Socialism or Statism or Fascism and cast out those evil Conservatives.
Perhaps, we should expose this concept of tribalism and racism or at least identify the roots and supporters of the concepts. Our president will his tepid acknowledgment of Israel and his support of the Middle East people has encouraged the Middle East and it’s tendencies toward tribalism; although, they are encouraged by the president, the Muslim Brotherhood sees it as an advantage and will capitalize on our weakness. They realize that Obama is only a temporary advantage and like Iran, it will be hard or impossible to reverse the process. The Muslim Brotherhood will probably institute a much more repressive regime, but in promising Democracy and the extermination of the bogeymen, they will accomplish their goal, while the President and our SOS call out impotently for peaceful transition to tyranny; thus re-enforcing the perception of America’s weakness in leadership.
The humor is within the irony that the Democrat’s use of tribalism is being used against them to make them the laughingstock of the world and guaranteeing strife in the Middle East for decades into the future. Yes racism is alive and well, it just operates on different planes of consciousness.
Do we allow ourselves to be sucked into the maelstrom of racism and tribalism or do we try to educate the masses: tens of millions of Americans are locked into tribalism and we have a fairly high rate of literacy: in the Middle east, the literacy rate is dismal and we have no influence other than the propaganda bureaus of the MSM and even the illiterates of the world can see through their false messaging. Racism is evil, but not nearly as evil as those who exploit this weakness within the human psyche.
Machelle Malkin http://michellemalkin.com/ has a post today that should dictate where the US should go with labels on race. Lloyd Marcus prides himself as an unhyphenated American. Here is one article he wrote about his fire fighter father. http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/a_cure_for_racism_in_america_s.html
It would do one good to search for his posts on the American Thinker!
During my years in the military after basic training, race was no factor. (Basic training was a challenge until new recruits realized that their lives likely would depend upon the person next to them. That person was not likely to look like them.) The real factor was can I trust this person to do the right thing under the stress of combat. Reliability in combat had nothing to do with race.
Thanks Randy, I read the Marcus article; it was moving and inspirational.
Our Conservative message that you have the inner-strength to determine your own destiny is often ignored for the Democrat message of we will take care of you for perpetuity, just make sure we never need to work, we are the Elites with the innate knowledge and skills. It is an uphill battle and men like Marcus and his dad are obvious examples of what can be accomplished with an individual’s own abilities.
Now, I must go to work.
Cover the flank Randy.
It is a sad story. Sounds like Skookum was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I went to elementary school with different races. I did not care. It wasn’t until I got into High School that I saw the “blacks gang up” ( usually a mob 10 – 30 of brothas and sista’s) on (usually whites) for “perceived” infractions (someone accidentally bumped one of them, and saying they were sorry or they perceived a ‘dirty’ look) stupid stuff. I can’t remember anything worse than that although there could have been I don’t know.
Racism? Looking back? Perhaps…
Although many Blacks will not face the truth (or are not ‘ready’ to ‘face’ it). The Democratic Party ‘is’ the blame for ” holding Blacks back” and for 40 years, keeping them in the Mire of Entitlements, Affirmative Action, Poor Education, and so forth… And I believe in the not so distant future the Free ride for a lot of them and For a lot of ‘others’ who are “feeding off the system” is going to come to an end. It is just not sustainable. However, in all fairness, many Blacks ‘do’ see the “light”.
Hard working people, after awhile, are not going to like a continued 30% of their paycheck be taken away and ‘given’ as ‘forced charity’ (redistribution) to people who ‘can’ work , but want to ‘play the system’ . There is going to be a ‘push back’. And a demand for another ‘type’ of “Change” – Big time! These people will be found out and eventually be cut off. Racism? No. The real world. Yes. No more Liberal Utopia = Liberal Lies.
God Bless You All
And don’t beat yourself up over your experience skookum and I wish the same for the Black man and his little son. The Hillbilly guy was ignorant and there is quite a lot of that around, some of our teachers make sure it is spread ‘all around’, and quite thickly… You have learned what to say/do if there is a next time…
I have supped with drunkards and the rich. I have enjoyed the company of people of all colors, and to be sure, there are ignorant fools of all ages and every color. All we can do is treat someone as we would like to be treated. I say Yes Ma’am and No Ma’am to every woman, No Sir and Yes Sir to every man I come in contact with, regardless of color. I am 55 years old and my Mother has never heard me curse.
We all bleed the same color and the last time I checked…..there is only one Heaven.
John Seymour, hi I realy liked what you gave us here, I thank you
When can I get a photograph of the mules..they are beautiful.
Mos 8541, I’d gladly send you a picture, but I can’t, it isn’t mine. Although most of my career was spent working on horses, I’ve always admired a good mule. I’ve ridden a few, but I prefer to drive them. Some day, I hope to have a good team of heavy mules; like you, I think they are beautiful. Skook 0311
Mos 8541, hi, good idea for FA, to present copies of some of their outstandings images,
for us who would required it, I hope SKOOKUM talk about it to CURT,
thankk’s for thinking about it, I would like one too.
the mules are beautiful. I trust they have a good home..