Dear White Progressive Liberals, It's me Cordell and I have a dream

[clydefrand]

1. I'm a white anglo saxon, 80 years old.

When I was a child growing up in a small town in Virginia, I only knew
1 black person, a child about my age. We would play together, toss
baseball, etc. The was way before MLK. I know the blacks lived in
their part of town, and the whites in the rest of the town. I never heard any discussion about why this was. Later, I was in the Army
(basic training) and a black man was in my barracks right near my
bed. One Friday, we were given our first 3 day pass. I had no
plans, but this fellow asked around if he could borrow $20 just in
case he needed on his visit home. No one offered, so I said sure,
I'll loan you the 20. Well, my first taste of racisom - everyone around me said I never see him or the 20 because they figured he was
going AWOL. Well, Sunday evening he returned and the first thing
he did was to give me the 20 back. You could have hear a pin
drop in that barracks. For whatever reason, I was never in a place in
the Army that had blacks assigned to it. When I got out of army, the
MLK thing was just beginning and one day he and his brother were
discussing the subject. My dad asked him what he thought. He said
he didn't have a problem with them. My dad then asked what he would do if one of his daughters went out with a black. He answered
'I'd kill the sob'. (mind you, they did not use the term black either.)
Just never had occasion to work with or meet on a social basis
any other blacks - just the way it turned out.
TO THIS DAY, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY WHITES THINK THEY ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE BLACKS ARE.
I really liked your letter, but I wonder how many whites on DU
will bother to read it all. Bless.