Remember Colin Rand Kaepernick? The NFL player who sacrificed his status as a starring NFL quarterback, to hopefully call attention to many confrontations of mistreatment of other brothers of color, by authorities in local governments?
His knee, and knees of other NFL brothers were offered in peaceful protest, to call attention to situations similar to the recent tragic death of a brother in Minneapolis, brought on by law enforcement in that same city.
It is not disputed that George Floyd may have violated the law. But that disgusting scene shown on fake news, with the knee of a local law enforcement caucasian male, was too much to behold. Mr Floyd was desperately trying to breathe, and in the background one could hear another voice, assumably a police officer, shouting for George to “Get up and get in the car!”
But in the end, George could never obey that command. His life ended, face down in the asphalt. The knee of a caucasian police officer had strangled to death a life that did not deserve to be taken. Word has it, (fake news word) that a total of four police officers were there that day. But the scene of Mr. George Floyd’s face, and a knee of racial hatred, could tarnish race relations in this country.
My hometown is a city of less than 10,000 souls, in the Deep South. It has all of the regular fast food restaurants, and each restaurant has a TV tuned to Fox News, and remotes are nowhere to be seen. The TVs are mounted too high for one to even think about switching channels. Most caucasians have moved to the suburbs. Old houses there, including rental houses that I grew up in, are run down and falling apart. The owners of these old homes are descendants of previous parents/grandparents that are long gone from this world. The blacks aren’t wealthy enough to buy these dilapidated old structures, but the ones still livable are no doubt rented by the blacks. I grew up in that town, graduated from high school there, and hardly knew many blacks by name. There was never any racial problems that made the news. Grocery stores were on the square, uptown. They had delivery boys on bicycles, some were black boys. By the way, “black” was not used back then. They were “colored” people. One day this young colored boy, about 12 years old and the same age as my younger brother, delivered groceries to our home. Before he left, he and my kid brother were just talking, as kids do, and my brother also had a bicycle. Next thing I know they were racing each other up and down the street. My parents had no colored friends, but a few colored families lived “behind” our neighborhoods, and the colored men would be hired by different families for yard work, etc, and the colored wives would make a little money by housekeeping, ironing clothes, etc. I never once heard my parents use the N word, and there was never any racial hatred discussions.
Today, there is a new high school, fully integrated. “Coloreds” are free to dine in any and all restaurants. The local movie theater is closed, naturally due to computers, cable TV, and the internet. Other than that, the town is still the same as when I moved from there, after four years in the Air Force, and two years of college.
I don’t remember hearing the word “colored” on my last visit; I wonder sometimes if it is still used.
Hugo Buchanan is a resident of Lady Lake.