I live in a small town. I remember when we incorporated and we are still not big enough to merit our own post office. Mom’s family has been a part of this community since before I was born, my grandfather owned a small grocery store here for years. It’s a rural Southern town with its share of rednecks.It’s also been predominantly white, a place where nonwhite people just don’t settle.I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the library over the weekend and saw that one of the librarians was a black woman about my age. I didn’t ask her but since libraries usually respect the people who work there to live within the area they serve I can infer that she lives here.
One of Oz’s friends who grew up in Alabama described his town by saying, “they give out KKK membership cards at the same time as they issue you a Social Security card.” My town is not quite that bad but it is not much better. I have a friend whose mother came from Pakistan as a teenager she and her sister both take after their mother. In spite of the fact that she had been going to the same church long before the attacks on the World Trade Center, I remember defending her repeatedly when someone from here hurled abuse at her just because of her skin color. I’m glad to see my town become even a little less hidebound in its acceptance of people. I don’t usually go to the library on the weekends because of the shorter hours but I think it is worth going every once in a while in hopes of getting to know her.
Thank you for writing this. A little bit of hope that things are getting better is always good!
Hope will do good. And people with the good heart having hope make a lot of difference. 🙂
It would be a perfect world when people all over would begin accepting people of every colour and religion. Of course, I am being way too utopian in my thinking and hoping, but, then there is no harm for hoping for something good, isn’t it?
Thank you for sharing this wonderfully positive post, Rachel! 🙂