There's still a long way to go to defeat racism
STEVENS POINT — Like many cities of its kind, the Green Bay of my childhood was mostly white. There were a few Hispanics in our high school class and a handful of Native Americans of the Menominee and Oneida tribes. That was about it.
One of those Oneidas grew up nearby, and we became fast friends, born of a love for sandlot baseball. He wore a perpetual smile and had an easy laugh and was a damn good baseball player. He was one of our gang, and no one gave his racial background much thought. That is, until one night at a school dance when he was confronted by some guys who hurled racial slurs at him. When we heard he was being harassed outside the gym, we ran to his defense. By the time we got there, the harassers had driven off. Our friend didn’t seem too upset, almost like he had been through this before.
I remember being angry and confused by my first encounter with wretched racism. It would not be the last. Flash forward to the turn of the century, when experts from the social sciences were saying we had entered a new and enlightened era, one in which young folks were pretty much color blind. The great amalgamation, some preached, was at hand.
Maybe not so much. Daily we learn that racism is alive and well among young folks in our midst, to say nothing of their parents. Just last week, we were informed that the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a discrimination complaint with the Greendale, Wisconsin, School District, alleging it is violating federal law by failing to address a racially hostile environment.
Read more: https://madison.com/ct/opinion/column/bill-berry-there-s-still-a-long-way-to-go/article_34bf0496-9bf6-5ce9-b81b-a6e9d7a63a71.html
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