Why don't most Gen X parents know what Jim Crow laws are?

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

Whenever I talked to my mom and stepdad about Jim Crow, they either told me they don't know what it is or asked me what it is. My mom didn't even know what colonization meant. We're all white.

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It's literally something I was taught in school as well as on Twitter.

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Another thing too, red lining IS still a thing just not officially called red lining, just like slavery is still around, just not officially called slavery. "You put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig." - Barack Obama

[BeMuse]

Considering the oldest baby boomers were 8 years old when integration started and they don't even really have grasp of what Jim Crow laws were, I don't know why you'd expect Gen X to really grasp it either. For example my mom's memory of segregation is that when she went to middle school and high school some black kids went to school with her. When she was in elementary school they didn't. In high school there were two black girls on her cheerleading squad. They participated in the drills and events but they always kept to themselves (self segregated) and didn't want to be friends with the rest of the girls. She remembers growing up around mostly White Americans and Cubans. There was a small black town on the other side of the city, but they mostly kept to themselves just like how it is today. All over the country you still have black towns where blacks self segregate and stay to themselves. There are no laws today that say they have to anymore, but they don't want to be part of American society. Black kids often get bussed into schools with better testing results from more poor neighborhoods today, but since they are from the same neighborhood as each other they tend to stick to their own group of friends even today in 2022. That's pretty much how a lot of people experienced integration. There isn't conflict between people that never really interact with one another. That's pretty much how most people experienced Jim Crow laws who lived through them. Everyone wasn't some crazy angry racist screaming you dirty n! gger go home we don't want you here you filthy animal and starting fist fights over water fountain usage. That sort of shit is just media propaganda and Hollywood drama to get people to hate each other. People in the south generally got along well with each other, they just rarely interacted with other races. In the bigger Democrat cities there were some clashes that were reported on, and that's pretty much how the rest of middle America saw it, via a handful of news reports on the TV.

By the time Gen X was born everything was already integrated and the civil rights movement was for the most part over. It wasn't really history book material at that point either considering the the civil rights movement had just occurred. Generally history books report on things that are older than say 20 or 30 years ago. Now you have all sorts of propaganda that acts like it was way more tumultuous than it really was for dramatic effect.

[BeMuse]

It's like retelling a story about how you once caught a fish this big! Oh did you now... You sure it was that big? Yep, it was even bigger, you should have been there. lol

[BeMuse]

Today you have the same sort of thing occurring. Where I live in Florida there have been no BLM/ANTIFA riots. All the black people I run into are just getting on with their life and interacting normally with people. Like 20 miles away in a different city I think something like 10 white girls and a couple of black girls held up some poster board one day for like two hours in front of their city hall like morons. I once saw a BLM bumper sticker on a car of some Spanish communist. The neighbors who watch the news are like if those dumb communist try that here we'll shoot them. I'm like yep. Yet in big Democrat cities they spread hate and burnt their own neighborhoods to the ground and murdered each other and then reported on it.

[Jenny-Marie]

Taught on Twitter? As with all social media, not a good place to get educated.

You will probably find that it is only the more recent generations that like to label laws with a person's name. If you study various laws, you will see that it is often the more extremist or activist groups that try to personalise legislation. Had you spoken of the 13th amendment you would probably have had a different response from your parents.

As with all law, people will try to get round it and this was especially the case with the white landowners finding ways to circumvent anti-slavery laws by using many dubious and unpleasant means.

The US is still a culture that in parts is severely affected by racism. Just look at so many questions and responses on G&G. We need to look at history and learn from it. Racism is not a one-way street reserved for white people: it spreads through all ethnic groups. The only way forward is through education and tolerance, both of which are lacking

[Anonymous]

Gen X is too young to have witnessed the Jim Crow era directly and the history they were taught in school was white washed and Jim Crow was probably only mentioned briefly.

[HighValue]

Probably because those laws didn't exist during gen-x lives. BUT there have been anti-White laws during gen-x lives.

[FunkyMonkee]

I'm probably older than your parents and I don't have a clue who Jim Crow is/was! I know the term has something to do with ole time racism. Exactly what (or who he was/is), I haven't a clue!!

[FunkyMonkee]

Strange! My not knowing what it is hurt somebody else's feelings!!

[Anonymous]

They probably weren't history buffs.

I wonder if the Obama quote was attributed to something different to what you made it the context for. XD

[Anonymous]

WHY SHOULD THEY?

The KKK aren’t burning crosses on lawns anymore. Red lining is largely a thing of the past. We’ve had Black Congressmen, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, even the very President.

BUT Black folk are being held back.

Gimme a fucking break. 🙄

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

The KKK is still around and their members hung Ahmaud Arbery

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

Even the people who criticized Obama claimed he wasn't born here that he was actually born in Kenya; even that would still qualify him to run for President because his mother was born in America. But Cruz, born in Canada; no one cares

[joeldalton]

lol, it was Hillary who started the ‘born in Kenya’ rumor. And yes, it would disqualify him from running for office.

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

@joeldalton I don't care who started it. A racist is a racist regardless of political affiliation.

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

@joeldalton Literally according to the Constitution you can run for President and be elected if you are "natural-born"! Born in another country with AT LEAST ONE parent born in the US means you are able to run. It DOES NOT require that the ENTIRE family (parents+candidate) must be 100% American-born and American-raised. If Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or America, then he stayed in America for at least 14 years. SKUNK

[Opinion Owner]

Are you serious right now?

No. Arbery was not killed by some sheet wearing Klan Membere. No, he was not hung and lynched before a mob of screaming, gleeful Southerners. He was shot by a handgun.

And then Liberals like you go...

OMG A BLACK MAN WAS SHOT! SHOT! Why are people so racist? It’s wHiTe SuPremAcY at work!

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

I'm actually a conservative. I don't respect today's GOP or their staunch fanbase.

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

Blocked for being a troll

[joeldalton]

wait, you tried to pull the ‘colonizer’ bullshit on your parents?

[Agagagagaga]

Imagine that, he came home from school and told his parents how awful and racist Americans are, and they called him a stupid Democrat.

It’s amazing they aren’t more receptive. 🙄

[joeldalton]

@Agagagagaga right? And that’s how insidious the brainwashing is. My kid came home and was talking about history class and called the pilgrims the “colonizers”. fucking leftists.

[Agagagagaga]

Because the Dutch, English, French, German, Swedish, and Spanish were all the same don’t you know. Colonizers. 🙄

[joeldalton]

@Agagagagaga And they were colonists, not ‘colonizers’.

[OddBeMe]

instantly firing questions at people have shown bad results. So I imagine its more due to this.

[AsaKyo]

Maybe because no one cares about that outdated crap anymore

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

Zoning, gentrification (i. e. prices down in predominantly Black neighborhoods and up in predominantly White neighborhoods, and landlords kicking them out), police brutality are all forms of modern red lining.

Human trafficking and involuntary inservitude (death penalty placed on falsely accused innocent humans; the South and New York do this a lot) are forms of modern-day slavery.

It's not all "outdated" especially when politicians who voted against the Civil Rights Act are still alive!

[AsaKyo]

I wasn't even being serious, but alrighty

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

Sounds like you were

[joeldalton]

@hostboy__fastestlaps it’s not “gentrification” it’s “diversity”. Remember, diversity is strength.

[hostboy__fastestlaps]

@joeldalton Blocked and reported for trolling