(07-08-2023, 10:17 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote:

(07-08-2023, 09:55 AM)mikesez Wrote: I would say this to you whether your stories involved race or not:
Those people aren't in your life anymore, but
To the extent that you still think about them, find a way to forgive them.  You'll feel better.


In my middle school, allegedly white boy day was going to be the last day of school, and rumor was I was one of the ones they selected to target on that day.  A couple of friends watched me that day and nothing happened.  But I was scared and worried.  We all thought we shouldn't tell an adult because snitching was wrong or whatever.  That was decades ago.  


I was at a house party recently and a parent of a middle schooler mentioned that her white daughter was experiencing racist threats.  That was distressing.  The girl came over and told us what happened.  A group of black girls had been going around telling white girls that they weren't allowed to celebrate MLK day and would need to come to school that day.  The girl was still upset about it even though it was months prior.  No one had laid a hand on her or threatened to lay a hand on her though.
So yes racist events are still taking place
People are still getting pissed about them
But in an objective sense, these things are getting less and less severe.

That's a key difference between us there. In my sophomore year we got wind that White Boy Day was going to happen so a half dozen football players, 2 baseball players, and some guys from the drum line grabbed the social leader of that group and told him what would happen to him personally if anything went down. When the last bell rang nothing happened. The only way to stop this stuff is to actively mitigate it, backing down or playing defense doesn't work. It's the first and most important lesson I taught my kids and I hope they live it out all their lives.

Uh, good for you?
I think we might have been wrong for not telling an adult, but our decision to simply stick together that day did work.
Because we were only dealing with rumors.  If we had heard with our own ears that a certain group of kids was going to jump one of us, we might have confronted that group.  
What about you? Did any of those football and baseball and drum line guys actually hear about white boy day directly from the black kids that were threatening to do it? Or did they just confront and threaten a socially prominent black guy over nothing?

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