As I read the account of the little girl that was taught to be a racist – I was shocked. Shocked especially because it is 2009. In 2009 things have changed from the old days/ Everyone knows that – don’t they?
Dean Pritchard writes…
According to a social worker who testified yesterday, the girl said her mother told her,
"If you have a friend who is not white I won't be your mom ... I'll say I'm not your mom."
The disclosure came in April 2008, several weeks after the then seven-year-old girl and her two-year-old stepbrother were seized by Child and Family Services.
How sick can that be in 2009?
Well something should be said for the power of change… in society. We didn’t always think this way. Have you noticed?
Let me ask a question of your family. When was the last generation in your family to use the “N” word? The “N” word is “Nigger”. Every family in my generation used it when I was a boy.
I am 65 years old now and I heard it used 50 years ago – often.
It was a used by many in southern
Isn’t this dangerous to write about –
But not all my friends had American Roots. Many in
We never used the “N” word in common ways or used it to speak down to someone that was in need to being put down… we used the expression “DP”.
“DP” was way lower on the scale of condemnation than “nigger” was.
“DP”?
Yep “DP” was common. “DP” stood for “Displaced Person(s)” – someone that came from another country and has a strange accent in their English Language. They were usually Ukrainian or Polish or German – anything different than we were.
Funny thing was that I had lots of Ukrainian, Polish and German friends. All of them could speak perfect English. They weren’t “DP”s… they were my friends.
But the other people that were “DP”s were old people that smelled funny and dressed weird. They had no kids that I knew about and lived alone. Everyone knew they were “different” and dressed “different”. They came from other countries in the last few years – something about wars where they lived…
But when using the “DP” term about a “friend” or “acquaintance” it was in jest. Everyone knew that… and often called their friend a “DP” – when they wanted to call him down a little.
Now if some one on the school ground started a fight and beat you up… in your anger… you labeled him a “DP” – one of the lowest of low in any community.
A “DP” was the lowest and slowest of people…not able to speak good English… like we could… and their accent was really funny.
Now to set this attitude in the right place… it all happened within a radius of four blocks of
There was no running water and no sewage system. We all had outhouses to go relieve ourselves in… and all of these were situated at the back of the property – maybe 10 feet away from the other person’s outhouse. You could yell at your friend from your toilet if he was in his toilet.
We were all poor in comparison to the rest of the city that had running water for over 50 years.
And poor areas were where poor people lived… and tough people… and immigrant people… and farmer and small town people coming to the city to try to get a start… like us.
We were all “DP”s.
In fact every Canadian was a “DP” in the site of the Aboriginal people. But we called them “Indians” and shot them in our games of “Cowboys and Indians”.
No one wanted to be an Indian… so we made our little brothers and sisters Indians… so we could shoot them when they least expected it.
Now when we were tired of playing Cowboys and Indians – we switched to
“GI and Japs”.
The “GI” was an American Soldier – tough and smart. Japs were Orientals that were not so smart and definitely hated. Funny thing is that you couldn’t even get your younger brother to be the Japs. Japs were hated so bad that no one would be a JAP.
A JAP was short for Japanese… those people that killed so many GIs at
The Korean War was on when we played Cowboys and Indians, GIs and Japs. And we didn’t know what a Korean was in
How odd today… I have more Korean friends than others. I know many Japanese who happen to be some of the kindest and most refined people that I have ever met. The fact that either people groups would allow this “N” word using, Indian killing Cowboy, Jap shooting GI into their home is amazing. Simply amazing.
But now my grandkids have substituted using bad words of any kind – and instead they simply use “STUPID” as a really, big time, down putting word to some one that they don’t understand…
~
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2009/05/27/9582956-sun.html
Please note... later evening post at http://murraylincoln.blogspot.com/2009/05/soccer-cheers-by-bruce-lindsay.html
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