Rracism, etc.

[Guest guest]

Namah Shivaya,

Unlike Linda, I grew up in a small New England town. There were a couple

of Black guys in our school, who were in my class. They were nice kids

and we all liked them. I don't know how close they were to the other

kids, as far as hanging around after school and stuff. I knew they were

"different". Later, towards the end of high school, three kids who were

"army brats" moved to our town, and they were black. They were also

really nice kids, and everyone liked them a lot. There were two

brothers, who were in the class ahead of me, and a girl who was in my

class. We all liked her so much that she was voted queen of the senior

prom. Someone commented to me years later that this was a form of

racism, by singling her out. I don't know. I just know we all liked her,

and maybe we wanted to counter some of the BS black kids have to take by

voting her prom queen. She was just a regular, really nice kid.

But there was racism in our family. My parents hated Italians. Yup. Hard

to believe, and guess who looks Italian - moi. They also did not like

Jews, Polish people, on and on. Catholics. Catholics were horrible

people. More of them got to go through the four corners on Sunday

mornings by the special cop who directed traffic. They also had too many

kids. It was OK to have friends in school who were of these ethnicities

and religions, but don't date one! I'll never forget the time I went out

with an Italian guy from the next town on a blind date. My father hit

the roof. That date was not a match made in heaven, so my father got

all worked up for nothing. By that time I was a senior in high school,

so it was a little late to firmly instill that little prejudice.

When I went to Europe I saw a lot of racism. This was a long time ago,

don't know what it's like now. The Romans didn't like the Florencians or

the Venetians. I mean really didn't like them. Not like people from San

Francisco kidding about the people from LA - cuz most people living in

both cities aren't even from there, but moved there from somewhere else.

Remember all of the Irish, Italian and Polish jokes? I know you can't

tell them in California any more. It's probably been at least 15 years

since someone told me me one of those jokes. Aren't they a form of

racism, of separating people? And for what? Because their ancestors came

from another country? Does that really make a person all that different?

When I married my husband, his mother had a cow. She used to tell all

kinds of goyem (sp?) jokes - definitely a case of reverse

discrimination. It was her way of getting back at me because I wasn't

Jewish. Well, that was something I couldn't do anything about. When she

became really senile she stopped caring that I'm not Jewish..

My point is, in all of this rambling, that there are all sorts of

prejudices. "Class" prejudice. That's a good one. As Mother always says

about the bird on the dry twig!

A person who's living in a nice house and driving a nice car can loose

them in a minute through any number of circumstances.

To tell you the truth, I think people are getting better, not worse,

about racism, classism. Don't know about ageism. But as long as any of

this exists at all, it's too much. I always felt it was a way for people

to feel better about themselves, by putting other people down. Then

there's culture clash - a whole other issue.Pretty people don't like

people who are less attractive and visa versa. Oh, my head hurts!

These are all things that are on the surface. They have nothing to do

with the heart. The heart really doesn't care about the color of skin,

or money. Mother works her way into our hearts. She takes us to a place

where we can see that all of this stuff is really stupid and we need to

let it go. Throw it in the river, as Linda says.

Mother does such wonderful magic with us. How can we, the children of

the Divine Mother not see that we are all ONE? I guess we do, and that's

the reason Mother is here, so She can take us ALL home, into Her.

Pranams,

Prasadini

 

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