Re:Muhammad Ali has died
by e40 on Saturday June 04, 2016 @12:42PM
(#11836926)
I grew up in Louisville in the 60's and can attest to the poor state of race relations there.
My white grandparents had a house in the middle of the black part of town. And when I say "black" I mean except for my grandparents and my family, we never saw another white person anywhere close to their house, when we visited. We'd make the trip from the suburbs to their house every Sunday to take them food and hang out on the porch, in good weather, or the living room in bad weather. They were in their 80's and had lived in that house for 50+ years, and they saw no reason to leave. They and their neighbors were dirt poor.
As a kid, the difference between were I lived and this place I visited once a week was striking. It shaped how I felt about poor people and race relations, in general. The weird thing is that when I went there, that neighborhood felt more comfortable and friendly to me than mine in the burbs.
I remember when Ali refused to be drafted. There was a lot of anger in our home town. It help me form my feelings toward war and service. I don't think that internal dialog would have happened had he not done what he did.
My white grandparents had a house in the middle of the black part of town. And when I say "black" I mean except for my grandparents and my family, we never saw another white person anywhere close to their house, when we visited. We'd make the trip from the suburbs to their house every Sunday to take them food and hang out on the porch, in good weather, or the living room in bad weather. They were in their 80's and had lived in that house for 50+ years, and they saw no reason to leave. They and their neighbors were dirt poor.
As a kid, the difference between were I lived and this place I visited once a week was striking. It shaped how I felt about poor people and race relations, in general. The weird thing is that when I went there, that neighborhood felt more comfortable and friendly to me than mine in the burbs.
I remember when Ali refused to be drafted. There was a lot of anger in our home town. It help me form my feelings toward war and service. I don't think that internal dialog would have happened had he not done what he did.