I am so grateful this election is about over! Like most other Americans I would guess. In fact I’m pretty sure the whole world is getting really sick of the mud-slinging and such too.

For those who don’t know I live in the Southern U.S…. the South is different on many levels. There are many things about my South that I’m very proud of, the hospitality, the beautiful landscape, the commonsense attitude of many of its residents, just to name a few. I’ve long been bothered with the typical Southern stereotype most of which is attributed to our “accent", almost as if we’re stupid because we don’t talk good (bad grammar intended)!

Other than the whole ‘Southern drawl’ thing I’ve always been relatively proud of my heritage and home.  That all changed recently…

I overheard my boys and some of their friends talking about the election last week.  At first I was glad that at 16 yrs. old they were actually keeping up with something other than MySpace and MTV but I was quickly sickened by the whole conversation.  I hear one of the boys (yes one of mine) say, “If that nigger gets President he won’t be President long!” all the boys laugh and one of their friends chimes in with, “Hell ya, my Uncle said he knows somebody that will put a cap in his ass!” more laughter.  I seriously wanted to beat all of them bloody then I just became very sad.

I can’t blame this attitude totally on their Southern roots or upbringing, but lets not pull punches, racism is still a very present thing in our region.  But I can say with conviction my children have never heard anything like this come out of my mouth.  In fact the “n” word has always been banned in my house. As teenagers they have black friends and I’ve heard all of them say to each other, “What’s up my nigga?” and I’ve questioned both black and white about it and they laugh about it and say it’s no problem. It’s kind of a problem to me.

I know the conversation I overheard is not limited to a group of quasi-redneck  teens (and for the record I detest the label “redneck" too), I know all too well there are people in my very neighborhood that wouldn’t vote for a black man no matter what his platform.  I know members of my church who feel the same way.  I even have family members who, while they won’t admit that is the reason, they won’t vote for Obama, I know it’s his skin color.

I’m deeply ashamed of racist things that have happened in this country’s history.  I was an infant when some of them occurred but I simply can’t imagine living in a world where one color of people sat at the front of the bus and another color sat in the rear. I don’t think I’d ever want to live in a world like that yet my home, the very place I spend every day was like that.  I’ve asked my Grandmother and parents how they dealt with things like that and their answer usually is, “that’s just the way things were.”

This entire post is like a large jigsaw puzzle someone threw in the floor, heh.  Yes, it’s disjointed and a little circular but there are many points I’d like to make but didn’t take the time to organize them.

Bottom line, racism is not limited to the South, I know that.  But it’s really scary to think that in 2008 a black man could be in harms way simply because of his skin color.  Call me naïve, but I suppose I gave some of  my fellow Americans just a little too much credit.