I was reading Yahoo! News and saw my home state of Louisiana had elected a new governor. In the first line of the story, the point was made that the man was non-white – the first since Reconstruction to hold that office.
Good.
While it seems strange that in the 21st century the news services make special attention to the fact that the governor is not Caucasian, I understand.
Perhaps there is more attention to race in Louisiana because of the “Jena 6.” Perhaps it is because of increased scrutiny of the use of the “n word.”
And while these are good things, I am also glad in a selfish way.
As a North Louisiana native, I was blessed with a strange culture. We couldn’t quite claim the sophistication of New Orleans French Quarter or the uniqueness of the Cajun settlements to our southeast, although we tried on both counts. No, for many in that part of the state, the best we could claim was to be rednecks or coon-asses.
I thought about it for a day, but it wasn’t me. So like many of my classmates with a B or higher high school GPA, I moved to Texas. Seriously, I think we could have a reunion in Dallas and have a better turnout.
The reason I said I was glad in a selfish way is because I have tried all my life to be above the racist talk I heard from my early days. I had friends that were black and friends that were white – and yellow and tan, too. (But no Irish, please.) And while my intellectual self is above the idiocy of the traits my uncle tried to pass down to me, I still hear those thoughts in my head.
The last time I visited my uncle, he spent half the time cursing the new mayor.
“That stupid nigger is going to ruin this town.”
I listened to this talk for hours, thinking about how the town had no new industry in the past 20 years. The auto plant had closed a few years ago. The mall, built in 1985, was losing retailers and revenue. And a fair majority of the police jury – kind of a county commissioners court – were under FBI investigation.
Did he think things were great before the new mayor?
The new mayor was the first non-white one since Reconstruction, just like the new governor. Growing up, no one ever said we had a black mayor in our history. The only way I found out was going to a city council meeting and questioning why there was a gap in the dates of the mayors’ portraits.
Still, I know I absorbed some of my uncle’s attitudes. But I rebelled when I could. I tried to invite a black friend to stay over one night at my grandparents’ house only to be told that it would make some people angry. My grandmother didn’t say whom, but the impression of someone in the church – or the Klan? – knowing was tangible.
Most of my life, I have looked to my grandmother as a role model in my family. She was usually reserved and always dedicated to her family. But during my last visit, she sat there silently while my uncle cursed away. Perhaps she thought like I did that there was no point in arguing with someone who would not change.
And then I remembered finding something while cleaning out one of her closets the year after grandfather died. She had a pamphlet in a pile of papers in the bottom of his closet. The little white mimeographed booklet had Dr. Martin Luther King’s picture on it and the title said something about his being a Communist.
She didn’t make excuses except to say it was a different time then. I didn’t ask when “then” was, but took the book and threw it in the garbage bag I was holding. Then like a good boy, threw it in the metal barrel with the other burning trash.
I hope it is a different time now. But is it? When I typed black earlier (Associated Press style is black, not African American), I noticed the word did not automatically capitalize like Caucasian did.
And to see the news services hype the color of the governor-elect more than his credentials does not inspire me.
FYI: The new governor, Bobby Jindal, is the son of Indian immigrants. Does that mean he is less non-white? He also is Republican and the youngest governor in the nation.
But perhaps if the people of a state put their trust in someone with high hopes instead of the “proper” pigmentation, maybe they can rebuild the state faster after Katrina than they did the Civil War.