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"quit playing in the trees like monkeys" nets criminal charges?
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<blockquote data-quote="susiestar" data-source="post: 151133" data-attributes="member: 1233"><p>I can remember when the first black children were admitted to the private Catholic elementary school I attended. I was a couple of years ahead, in 5th grade. Up to that point I thought my parents were joking when they described racial prejudice. My dad taught shop mostly at what would nicely be called the roughest, toughest schools in our city. He was taking guns away from his students several times a year in the mid 1970s! As most of his students, and fellow teachers, were black, and no one in our family treated them any differently, I assumed teh whole racial prejudice thing was some strange joke.</p><p> </p><p>When these 3 siblings came into our school several of the NUNS said things like we could expect to not learn anything else the rest of the year because the teachers would have to be "pulling the monkeys out of trees and teaching them how to use silverware and behave like children should in school." I didn't hear this once, I heard it over and over and over.</p><p> </p><p>It was very clear to me that monkey WAS a racial slur, esp when one nun said they were all just monkeys with the fur shaved off and the tail cut off. She actually TOLD us that black children had their tails cut off at birth so they could fit into clothes and diapers.</p><p> </p><p>This was in a fairly expensive Catholic school - I was there because it had better academics than the local public school.</p><p> </p><p>I committed social suicide that year and sat with the new kids at lunch. I couldn't believe some of the garbage I was told. One lay teacher asked me if I wanted to turn into a black person, because I would if I kept eating at the same table as them.</p><p> </p><p>A very large percentage of our students disappeared right after these kids started school with us. Their parents wouldn't let them go to school with black students.</p><p> </p><p>Part of me is still confused by the idiocy of all these statements. But, as I was born in 1969, these happened in the late 1970s. </p><p> </p><p>Monkey has been a racial slur when used against African Americans for a long time. Largely this is because many species of monkeys and apes live in Africa.</p><p> </p><p>I find the whole racial prejudice thing sad and silly. I did then too. (My dad's best friend was a black vice principal at one of the schools he taught at. They would finish each others' sentences, we had a great time together when we had get-togethers, and many of the STUDENTS at the 99&#37; AA schools believed that my dad and this VP were TWINS, or at least brothers!!) I just alway thought I was lucky because I wasn't as stupid as the people who tried to tell me these things about "turning black" etc....</p><p> </p><p>I am still stunned that racial prejudice abounds, and saddened by it. While I think many forms of political correctness have gone too far, I am not one discriminated against racially. So I really have no good yardstick to measure accurately if the situation has been repaired so that racial slurs are meaningless. I personally believe that some on each side of the argument are too sensitive, but that the levels of prejudice in this world are very very high, very costly in so many ways, and totally inappropriate.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="susiestar, post: 151133, member: 1233"] I can remember when the first black children were admitted to the private Catholic elementary school I attended. I was a couple of years ahead, in 5th grade. Up to that point I thought my parents were joking when they described racial prejudice. My dad taught shop mostly at what would nicely be called the roughest, toughest schools in our city. He was taking guns away from his students several times a year in the mid 1970s! As most of his students, and fellow teachers, were black, and no one in our family treated them any differently, I assumed teh whole racial prejudice thing was some strange joke. When these 3 siblings came into our school several of the NUNS said things like we could expect to not learn anything else the rest of the year because the teachers would have to be "pulling the monkeys out of trees and teaching them how to use silverware and behave like children should in school." I didn't hear this once, I heard it over and over and over. It was very clear to me that monkey WAS a racial slur, esp when one nun said they were all just monkeys with the fur shaved off and the tail cut off. She actually TOLD us that black children had their tails cut off at birth so they could fit into clothes and diapers. This was in a fairly expensive Catholic school - I was there because it had better academics than the local public school. I committed social suicide that year and sat with the new kids at lunch. I couldn't believe some of the garbage I was told. One lay teacher asked me if I wanted to turn into a black person, because I would if I kept eating at the same table as them. A very large percentage of our students disappeared right after these kids started school with us. Their parents wouldn't let them go to school with black students. Part of me is still confused by the idiocy of all these statements. But, as I was born in 1969, these happened in the late 1970s. Monkey has been a racial slur when used against African Americans for a long time. Largely this is because many species of monkeys and apes live in Africa. I find the whole racial prejudice thing sad and silly. I did then too. (My dad's best friend was a black vice principal at one of the schools he taught at. They would finish each others' sentences, we had a great time together when we had get-togethers, and many of the STUDENTS at the 99% AA schools believed that my dad and this VP were TWINS, or at least brothers!!) I just alway thought I was lucky because I wasn't as stupid as the people who tried to tell me these things about "turning black" etc.... I am still stunned that racial prejudice abounds, and saddened by it. While I think many forms of political correctness have gone too far, I am not one discriminated against racially. So I really have no good yardstick to measure accurately if the situation has been repaired so that racial slurs are meaningless. I personally believe that some on each side of the argument are too sensitive, but that the levels of prejudice in this world are very very high, very costly in so many ways, and totally inappropriate. [/QUOTE]
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