Black and White
2014-11-28 - by
Bowater is a wise old soul with a unique way of looking at the world. He’s an older white gentleman who grew up in Northeastern North Carolina but grew out of the political views that his peers espouse over coffee at Bojangles. I wanted his take on Ferguson.
He smiled. “Well, I must be the only person in America who gets both sides.”
That’s a signal for me to raise an eyebrow and invite him to launch a typical soliloquy. I did. And he obliged.
“I get how a policeman might take his gun and fire away at a guy he thinks is trying to kill him. Being a cop is no fun job to have. You gotta make split-second decisions when somebody’s coming at you. And I get how all my friends say the grand jury heard the evidence and decided that the cop didn’t commit a crime.
“But,” he started, then stared out the window. “A grand jury ain’t a trial jury. And I’ve always heard a DA can indict a ham sandwich if he wants to. So I guess it’d be an easy thing for a DA to let a guilty man off if he was so inclined.
“So I get black people getting mad and feeling like they’re getting screwed by the system. After all, they have been all their lives. And I get how there are always hotheads who want to burn everything down.”
Bowater doesn’t go on Facebook or any of that, so I told him about all the rage and bile that’s come out, some of it among friends and family members. What’s that about?
He looked out the window again. “That ain’t nothing new. I’ve seen that before. I saw it right here in the 1950s and the 1960s when they started integating the schools and passing civil rights laws. I saw the same anger you’re seeing on this Facebox or whatever it is. It’s just the same old thing.
“Son, that’s what people do when their way of life is threatened. Back in those days, white people didn’t think black people should go to the same schools and stores and restaurants we did. They felt threatened when the government said they had to.
“Over time, they got used to that. But now they feel threatened a new way. Hell, a lot of it’s because we elected a black President. Nobody ever thought that would happen. And we got immigrants who speak Spanish. People like me always felt like, even with integration, we were on top and would stay on top. Now that’s changing. People are mad and scared because the world is changing and they feel threatened.”
I ventured, “It makes you worry about what’s going to happen in this country.”
He wasn’t having any of that. “Hell, boy, we had a Civil War! We killed each other over this kind of thing. But we got through it. I lived through a Depression and a World War and all the civil rights upheaval. We got through it. And we’ll get through this.”
He took a sip of coffee and looked out the window. “We always get through it.”
Posted in General
Black and White
2014-11-28/
Bowater is a wise old soul with a unique way of looking at the world. He’s an older white gentleman who grew up in Northeastern North Carolina but grew out of the political views that his peers espouse over coffee at Bojangles. I wanted his take on Ferguson.
He smiled. “Well, I must be the only person in America who gets both sides.”
That’s a signal for me to raise an eyebrow and invite him to launch a typical soliloquy. I did. And he obliged.
“I get how a policeman might take his gun and fire away at a guy he thinks is trying to kill him. Being a cop is no fun job to have. You gotta make split-second decisions when somebody’s coming at you. And I get how all my friends say the grand jury heard the evidence and decided that the cop didn’t commit a crime.
“But,” he started, then stared out the window. “A grand jury ain’t a trial jury. And I’ve always heard a DA can indict a ham sandwich if he wants to. So I guess it’d be an easy thing for a DA to let a guilty man off if he was so inclined.
“So I get black people getting mad and feeling like they’re getting screwed by the system. After all, they have been all their lives. And I get how there are always hotheads who want to burn everything down.”
Bowater doesn’t go on Facebook or any of that, so I told him about all the rage and bile that’s come out, some of it among friends and family members. What’s that about?
He looked out the window again. “That ain’t nothing new. I’ve seen that before. I saw it right here in the 1950s and the 1960s when they started integating the schools and passing civil rights laws. I saw the same anger you’re seeing on this Facebox or whatever it is. It’s just the same old thing.
“Son, that’s what people do when their way of life is threatened. Back in those days, white people didn’t think black people should go to the same schools and stores and restaurants we did. They felt threatened when the government said they had to.
“Over time, they got used to that. But now they feel threatened a new way. Hell, a lot of it’s because we elected a black President. Nobody ever thought that would happen. And we got immigrants who speak Spanish. People like me always felt like, even with integration, we were on top and would stay on top. Now that’s changing. People are mad and scared because the world is changing and they feel threatened.”
I ventured, “It makes you worry about what’s going to happen in this country.”
He wasn’t having any of that. “Hell, boy, we had a Civil War! We killed each other over this kind of thing. But we got through it. I lived through a Depression and a World War and all the civil rights upheaval. We got through it. And we’ll get through this.”
He took a sip of coffee and looked out the window. “We always get through it.”
Posted in General