MLK Weekend

I enjoyed your post, organicmama! Thank you for your comments! :clap_1:

Interesting point of view.

I'm south of Atlanta, but my daughter's boyfriend lives in Alpharetta, and I've heard how lily white and homogeneous it is. Where I live, not only is there black/white segregation, but many people born here don't socialize with those who were brought here by their jobs, much of the MD crowd only socializes with other MD's, women who don't work don't socialize with women who work, parents whose kids go to one particular high school don't socialize with parents of kids who don't, etc. Very cliquish.

BR..I beg to differ with you....I lived in the Duluth/Alpharetta area for 8 1/2 years and while almost everyone who lived in this area was in the same economic bubble...it was by no means lilly white! My neighbors ran the range of diversity! All countries, all nationalities and all skin tones, and I never, in the whole time I lived there, heard one word that even bordered on racisim!!!! It is MUCH worse here in SC...it is disgusing on all sides!

I enjoyed your post, organicmama! Thank you for your comments! :clap_1:


BR..I beg to differ with you....I lived in the Duluth/Alpharetta area for 8 1/2 years and while almost everyone who lived in this area was in the same economic bubble...it was by no means lilly white! My neighbors ran the range of diversity! All countries, all nationalities and all skin tones, and I never, in the whole time I lived there, heard one word that even bordered on racisim!!!! It is MUCH worse here in SC...it is disgusing on all sides!

OOPS! My bad. That's just what I hear from people I know who live there. The only place I've ever been in Alpharetta is Peachtree Women's Clinic when they were booked up at the Peachtree-Dunwoody office.

We have been telling her that for a long time.

I know. But Mr. BR loves his job and wouldn't want to leave. Note: I didn't say I love mine -- I'm tired of teaching, but there are health insurance issues. We just try to get to the beach and Atlanta as often as possible to escape.

I enjoyed your post, organicmama! Thank you for your comments! :clap_1:


BR..I beg to differ with you....I lived in the Duluth/Alpharetta area for 8 1/2 years and while almost everyone who lived in this area was in the same economic bubble...it was by no means lilly white! My neighbors ran the range of diversity! All countries, all nationalities and all skin tones, and I never, in the whole time I lived there, heard one word that even bordered on racisim!!!! It is MUCH worse here in SC...it is disgusing on all sides!

Well, it's here in Chicagoland. I am appalled at the amount of racism I hear and see regularly in this area, and this is not a low-income, uneducated area. It seems that I might be a little more sensitive to it since I am from the south. I thought when I moved away from Ala., it would end. I was so wrong. Sadly, it's everywhere.

How sad, BR. Doesn't sound like a very happy place to live

Here's an example. Heard at the next table at the country club, "Can you imagine having to WORK for money? I pity those people. It is just so gauche. Inherited money is the best! I can't imagine being like THEM." What's worse is they knew they were heard and knew that most of those at surrounding tables do have to work for what they have.

BTW the person saying most of this stuff will be my next-door neighbor as soon as her mother-in-law dies and she and her husband inherit the house.

Here's an example. Heard at the next table at the country club, "Can you imagine having to WORK for money? I pity those people. It is just so gauche. Inherited money is the best! I can't imagine being like THEM." What's worse is they knew they were heard and knew that most of those at surrounding tables do have to work for what they have.

BTW the person saying most of this stuff will be my next-door neighbor as soon as her mother-in-law dies and she and her husband inherit the house.

It is all so toxic in your hood. Get out sooner rather than later.

Here's an example. Heard at the next table at the country club, "Can you imagine having to WORK for money? I pity those people. It is just so gauche. Inherited money is the best! I can't imagine being like THEM." What's worse is they knew they were heard and knew that most of those at surrounding tables do have to work for what they have.

BTW the person saying most of this stuff will be my next-door neighbor as soon as her mother-in-law dies and she and her husband inherit the house.

Bragging about inherited money is tres gauche. Bragging about any kind of money is gauche, actually.

tres gauche. Love it.:clap_1: I think I will use that word all week. Hmm, would you like your cold cuts cut thin or thick.........tres gauche paillettes please.

Well said organicmama:clap_1:

I saw your little daughter's photograph with the corkscrew curls...she's adorable!

Thanks so much!

You know, prejudice is everywhere, all over the world. It's not the prejudice that's the problem. We're human and when we look at others, we naturally categorize people. It's when we act on the prejudice that it becomes "ugly" and can turn to racism. Much of what everyone is writing about has to do more with socio-economic status and not just color. As someone stated, Alpharetta is a "bubble" of fairly high incomes.

People look at the South and assume that every white person here is racist. I've traveled all over the U.S. and internationally and what it actually taught me is that the South is just fine. For a long time, I didn't want to believe that, but I cannot imagine living anywhere else. And typically, Southerners are more sensitive about the topic of race.

Bragging about inherited money is tres gauche. Bragging about any kind of money is gauche, actually.

You are so right!. When I inadvertently do it (because I'm a bit insecure), I could just kick myself in the butt. It makes me look almost as bad (what she said was pretty extreme) as that biotch at the club.

It's so sad that in this day and age anyone is still even bringing up differences in the color of our skin. Whether someone is black or white shouldn't even come up...it should be a non-issue. We are all equal. This is America, the land of opportunity, where we all have the opportunity to make an honest living. Having a specific program that targets one particular race, in my opinion, keeps the differentiating of races alive and in the forefront. There are folks of all nationalities and races who need help...why differentiate between the races? And what about pride? How can someone who's been put ahead of an entire group of people in competition for a job simply because of the color of his/her skin possibly have pride in that job when they know the only reason they were selected for that job was because of the color of their skin? I truly hope the day comes , hopefully in my lifetime, where the issue of race is non-existent. Only then will we be truly equal.

Just my two cents.

My point was that while, thankfully, many remember MLK for his speeches, his actions often did not coincide. The “content of our character, not the color of our skin” statement rings hollow when pushing for race-based entitlement and compensation. I think MLK is best remembered as an ideal, rather than for what he really was. The content of Mr. King’s moral character leaves much to be desired, but he did more for civil rights than anyone since Lincoln. Andrew Busch lays it out much more eloquently than I have time to do here.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlYmJlNTQzZmU5NWVhOGZjNjdkZDBiN2RmYWI1NmM=


http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlYmJlNTQzZmU5NWVhOGZjNjdkZDBiN2RmYWI1NmM=

I had a grayt time on MLK weekend. I'm not any kind of affluent!

This is what filled the weekend:
Grayton Kid's basketball game in DeFunk.
Lunch at Murrays in DeFunk-love it.
Dinner at Borago
Waco Ramblers at Pandoras
Dread's return to the Red Bar!
Dinner at Amore and more Ramblers
Lunch at the new Mexican place in Freeport - awesome experience!
Wonderful time with Grayton Kid and Grayton Baby.
Wonderful time with #1,2,3 and the Dread Man!
Visits with some sowallers like PV and JO.
Beautiful January weather!
Precious time with Mama Sis and Daddy Brown.
Cleaning the house....again.
Sleepy but safe trip home.

I had a grayt time on MLK weekend. I'm not any kind of affluent!

This is what filled the weekend:
Grayton Kid's basketball game in DeFunk.
Lunch at Murrays in DeFunk-love it.
Dinner at Borago
Waco Ramblers at Pandoras
Dread's return to the Red Bar!
Dinner at Amore and more Ramblers
Lunch at the new Mexican place in Freeport - awesome experience!
Wonderful time with Grayton Kid and Grayton Baby.
Wonderful time with #1,2,3 and the Dread Man!
Visits with some sowallers like PV and JO.
Beautiful January weather!
Precious time with Mama Sis and Daddy Brown.
Cleaning the house....again.
Sleepy but safe trip home.

Glad you had fun! I was the last one to catch the flu around here, so I was holed up inside Sunday & Monday. We had a good beach day on Satuday, though, and that made up for it all!

See you soon! Tell your youngest to give us a call!

I had a grayt time on MLK weekend. I'm not any kind of affluent!

This is what filled the weekend:
Grayton Kid's basketball game in DeFunk.
Lunch at Murrays in DeFunk-love it.
Dinner at Borago
Waco Ramblers at Pandoras
Dread's return to the Red Bar!
Dinner at Amore and more Ramblers
Lunch at the new Mexican place in Freeport - awesome experience!
Wonderful time with Grayton Kid and Grayton Baby.
Wonderful time with #1,2,3 and the Dread Man!
Visits with some sowallers like PV and JO.
Beautiful January weather!
Precious time with Mama Sis and Daddy Brown.
Cleaning the house....again.
Sleepy but safe trip home.

Sounded great SM! What's your secret to staying to slim and trim? I haven't eaten out in more that a week because I don't want to be tempted! I know, I'm weak!

One of the reasons I like my neighborhood is that it is mixed. On MLK day afternoon, I was in the kitchen in the back of the house and had the window open...I heard the racket of kids playing and got mildly annoyed. So, I looked out the window and saw a group of white kids and black kids playing basketball together. I tabled my temptation to get mad at the noisy kids and instead recognized what a silent small victory it was.

One of the reasons I like my neighborhood is that it is mixed. On MLK day afternoon, I was in the kitchen in the back of the house and had the window open...I heard the racket of kids playing and got mildly annoyed. So, I looked out the window and saw a group of white kids and black kids playing basketball together. I tabled my temptation to get mad at the noisy kids and instead recognized what a silent small victory it was.

Thanks for noticing the small victory. :clap_1:
However, today I witnessed racism still at it's ugliest in the so-called progressive midwest, and I am so mad at myself for not doing more.

In our subdivision we have a mailbox located at a 4-way stop that is never busy, just subdivision traffic. The mailbox is used continuously thruout the day and everyone patiently waits for the car that is temporarily stopped for the 30 seconds it takes to run over and deposit their letter or you just slowly drive around them.

Well today, I was at the intersection and watched a young college-age black girl pull her car over to the curb, jump out and run over to drop in her letter. I watched in horror, as a minivan with a man and a woman pull up to her rear bumper at a very fast rate of speed, come to a screeching halt (at the curb too, I might add), blast the horn and gesticulate wildly for her to move out of the way. All this as she was running to get back in her car. I was mortified. I pulled thru the intersection and was parallel with the van but positioned in the opposite direction. I motioned for him to roll down his window. He did and I said "Come on, she's using the mailbox for god's sake!!!" (I really wanted to use some profanity but I refrained) He yelled back at me, like an a$$hole, and said "She's blocking the road!" I yelled back that she wasn't, etc., but didn't pursue it because I knew he was a HUGE A_ _ HOLE JERK. I haven't been able to get this whole scenario out of my head since.

But the future hope is in our children's generation. We have to continue to be a huge influence on our youth and to educate them to play a role in eradicating bigotry & intolerance ~

Thanks for noticing the small victory. :clap_1:
However, today I witnessed racism still at it's ugliest in the so-called progressive midwest, and I am so mad at myself for not doing more.

In our subdivision we have a mailbox located at a 4-way stop that is never busy, just subdivision traffic. The mailbox is used continuously thruout the day and everyone patiently waits for the car that is temporarily stopped for the 30 seconds it takes to run over and deposit their letter or you just slowly drive around them.

Well today, I was at the intersection and watched a young college-age black girl pull her car over to the curb, jump out and run over to drop in her letter. I watched in horror, as a minivan with a man and a woman pull up to her rear bumper at a very fast rate of speed, come to a screeching halt (at the curb too, I might add), blast the horn and gesticulate wildly for her to move out of the way. All this as she was running to get back in her car. I was mortified. I pulled thru the intersection and was parallel with the van but positioned in the opposite direction. I motioned for him to roll down his window. He did and I said "Come on, she's using the mailbox for god's sake!!!" (I really wanted to use some profanity but I refrained) He yelled back at me, like an a$$hole, and said "She's blocking the road!" I yelled back that she wasn't, etc., but didn't pursue it because I knew he was a HUGE A_ _ HOLE JERK. I haven't been able to get this whole scenario out of my head since.

But the future hope is in our children's generation. We have to continue to be a huge influence on our youth and to educate them to play a role in eradicating bigotry & intolerance ~

I believe I missed the racism part in your story. Just sounds like an angry driver. Is there more that you are not telling us?

I believe I missed the racism part in your story. Just sounds like an angry driver. Is there more that you are not telling us?

My opinion too. There are jackass impatient drivers everywhere, and this one probably wasn't from the neighborhood and not used to the protocol. I bet it was simply one car stopped on the road that he didn't expect to see there and it annoyed him. Nothing to do with racism, only road rage.

My opinion too. There are jackass impatient drivers everywhere, and this one probably wasn't from the neighborhood and not used to the protocol. I bet it was simply one car stopped on the road that he didn't expect to see there and it annoyed him. Nothing to do with racism, only road rage.

I hope so. That viewpoint does make me feel just a little bit better, but not much. And it's not so much racism (even tho I actually thought that's what it was all about) but the intolerant and impatient a-holes.

Never mind.

Racism is usually the ones who claim they aren't even prejudiced, but say things like, "If God wanted us to all be together, he'd have made us all the same color!"

That's a quote from my mother. :rofl: We had arguments about why multiracial children shouldn't be brought into this world. She didn't even tell her sister, a retired Director of Institutional Research for Georgia State University, that I was married and had children. My once close aunt, who took me to Europe in high school and college, stopped talking to me a long time ago because she doesn't believe in race mixing. When she found out I was married and had a child, she hung up on me. I wonder how the heck they explained themselves out of that one.

Plus, long, long ago, my dad said he was afraid I'd have a black man for a boss and he'd take advantage of me. What's more racist than that? We were walking through farm land near Lake Oconee in Georgia... I began shouting all kinds of profanity (that I never thought I'd say to my dad ) and all he was worried about was whether or not someone heard me... who the cows and horses????

But, alas, they claim to love my children.... however seeds of "Yeah, whatever!" still hang in my mind because if they get a whiff of any lack of marital bliss (perfectly normal stuff), they are ready to go and it becomes a black/white issue. (Of course one of my brothers' porn obsession isn't a character flaw and it's not based on race, but that's another story. They can just sweep that one under the rug, of course.)

But my 1/2 Panamanian sister in law (not married to the retard mentioned above) passes for white, partially because her maiden name was Limbaugh and because she's light skinned. My aunt absolutely loves her!

I am adopted and have had a "Thank God I'm Not Blood Related to These Crazy People" list for a long time. These items are on it. If it wasn't for my unusual family, it'd be my environmentalist, hippy tendencies. There's always been something that irritated them about me, as if I am still a rebel child at 34 years old.

Truly, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, as long as they don't disrespect my little family. We have friends & family from all walks of life and just as we don't force our way of life on them, we accept that most people are not like us. People have a right to their own opinions. As long as our loved ones can sit back and laugh at the world's absurdities, it's all good.

Please know that I am laughing as I type this. I have learned over the years not to let their craziness into my life any more than that. It's also why I love it down here... I am 70 miles from my birth family in Pensacola and Baldwin County, AL. :clap_1:

Organicmama, you and your immediate family are always welcome at my dinner table. ;-)

Thanks, we know that! Y'all are so wonderful!

Sounded great SM! What's your secret to staying to slim and trim? I haven't eaten out in more that a week because I don't want to be tempted! I know, I'm weak!

Well, I certainly don't know about the slim and trim but my kids joke about us ALWAYS sharing food. We go out to eat and I say "one salad should be fine. We can share it." We definitely share entres! I could never eat a whole one at Borago. I did eat the whole waffle at the RB though and it was soooo good and crunchy on the edges! AND I had Miss Kitty's Arugla salad at Borago. It was gone so fast Courtney our sweet server said, "You didn't like your salad?" I didn't even offer to share.

just read through this thread and its all very interesting. I think that holidays are just that - a time to get away and go enjoy our time off work, like MLK holiday, and hopefully on that day we can reflect on the meaning of the holiday itself.

I think that a racist is someone who talks about Dr. King's "morals" as if his personal decisions have anything to do with his "dream" for african americans and all people of the world.

Where are you? Alpharetta? Or the surrounding Roswell/Cumming areas? Just wondering b/c we are just moved from that area down here and we are a multiracial family, who definitely stood out around there. Many of the African American families did talk about not having enough multi-culturalism there, but that they also wanted the pluses of living in that area.

Sadly, race still does come up today. Talking about it freely makes it lose its hold over people, though. It is part of what makes a person who he/she is, but it should not be a determinating factor in being friends, hiring or falling in love with another person. You can't take away the color of one's skin, although it means very little, as in I look "white," but I have African, Native American, European, etc. in me.

We talk with our children about it continuously because we want them to know it's a safe subject and it takes away the taboo of it all.

Ironically, while typing this message, my 3 year old wanted me to comb her hair straight. She has the corkscrew curls but knows that it makes her different from others, including her older sister. It is something that I felt would happen with at least one of our children, as their are sociological studies that show "white" features are preferred over "black" features, even in small African American children. There was a video taken of a study where small children were asked to choose which doll they liked better, a white or a black doll. All of the African American children chose the white doll, because they said it was "prettier" than the black doll. No matter how many times I saw that film, I cried.

My oldest daughter and I were talking about MLK Jr and Rosa Parks today. She said, he was trying to help the world and someone killed him. But even in his death, MLK has done so much to help this world. Being able to talk about his life and his achievements with each other still keeps his dream alive.

My wish is that one day, we will all be able to celebrate the rainbow of colors of everyone's skin and not have to pretend that there are not differences in shades and hues. Everyone is beautiful in their own right. That is what we need to focus on. Colorblindness will keep us blind.

Beautiful! After the first post I did not want to read more and now I am so happy that I did. God Bless Martin Luther King.