Race Relations in Rural NC
Gary A. House
I am 48 years old. I grew up in the outskirts of Fayetteville
and Hope Mills, N.C. I would guess that
the schools that I attended were 60-70% white, 25% black, and the rest Native
American, Asian and Hispanic.
Being in the classroom and
playing sports allowed me to have interaction with all of the represented
ethnicities. I never remember having
issues between any segments of the population.
I always felt like we were brothers and sisters.
Being on the ball field
allows you to get past color barriers and allows you to see people for they
really are. Playing sports allowed us to
build camaraderie and to learn how to accept those who may not be exactly like
us.
I have very fond memories
on the fields of Cumberland County.
Those memories are not segregated in black and white. They are simply memories. Those memories would not exist if it were not
for people like Gerald McDowell who is black, Ernie Privette who is Native
American and Mike Thompson who is white.
My adolescent years were
formed by people of all races. In the
area I grew up in, there may have been an occasional fight but we were always
friends afterwards.
I simply do not remember
race wars or being scared to go to school.
Upon graduating, I
attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I found much of the same experiences
there. Everyone got along. It did not matter what you looked like.
The only time I felt
uncomfortable at UNC was when Arnold Franklin, a huge football player, hosted a
small party in dorm room below mine and he turned up the stereo as loud as it
would go and played “Burning Down the House.”
Once I realized they were just having fun and the dorm was not going up
in flames, everything was alright.
I was exposed to
absolutely no racial tension in college or school.
However, I could see racial
tendencies in the generation before me.
I always thought that as time went by, racial tendencies would become
diluted and even though we may not look exactly alike, equality would
prevail. Racism would simply die out at
some point in the future.
I have never really
visited the inner city in some of our huge Metropolitan areas even though I got
lost in a car in the inner city of Orlando and Atlanta. I cannot speak for people in those areas.
I was disappointed in the
reaction in Ferguson, Missouri. It is
unfortunate that Michael Brown lost his life.
I do think Officer Darren Wilson felt his life was in danger. Officer Wilson had never fired his gun in the
line of duty which shows he was not a rogue cop who shot at anyone who
moved. The Grand Jury reviewed the
evidence and chose not to indict him.
Now, I have no way of
knowing whether they saw all the evidence or heard all of the witnesses. I do know three of the jurors were black and nine
were white. Was that a fair
breakdown? I don’t know based on the
demographics of the area. I do believe
anyone who sits on a Grand Jury knows how serious the task at hand is. I still believe in the inherent goodness of
people including the Grand Jurors and Officer Wilson.
Even if Officer Wilson
made a grave mistake, burning down the property of innocent people and looting
innocent businesses is not the way to protest.
Americans should be beyond that.
Yes, I said Americans not Black Americans. It is time to stop with the labels and just
be Americans where we care about each other.
It tears me up to see the
violence in my home country. I want to return
to the days of my youth when we were all friends. The day that I can get an assist to Tony McKoy,
throw a touchdown to Michael Foster, or compete with Gerald McDowell and we all
be friends afterwards.
All of us need to open our
hearts and be friends like in the days of my youth. Opportunities need to exist for every
one. We need equality in America.
Dear God, bring back the
path that I was on in the days of my youth and spread it across American soil
and beyond. Let us be like Rural NC.
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