Chatty way OT reply Re: Fiji in space but back on earth, oy ve?!?!?

On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 21:45:43 +1000 "Alan and Carmel Brain"
<aebrain@webone.com.au> writes:
<snip>
>I don't know whether to break down and cry over the stupidity of the 
>past,

Both at various times and sometimes at the same time.

>or to feel optimistic that things have indeed gotten better over the 
>last
>50 years.

Well, with some reservations (no pun intended) I think they have gotten
better in most cases.  I have a coworker (An Arkansas Republican - one
of
several generations - who went to work at DIA in D.C. and the only
people
who would socialize with him were the African Americans, so go figure.	

>Was exact genetic mix *really* that important in the US? 

Yes.  And no, depending on where you were and who you dealing with.  IN
my grandmother's words (Cherokee side) - "It gives some people two
reasons to be stupid in how they treat you."  

For that 
>matter,
>does it make a hell of a lot of difference now? 

Until I adopted two girls from India I would have said no but I have
found a small minority (no pun intended there either) of whites, South
Asians, and even a black or two) who have made me wonder at intervals. 
Again to quote my grandmother, "White eyes only see one color sometimes.

Same for some red, brown and yellow ones too."

'I spose that 
>depends...
>In the late 60's and early 70's I copped a lot of flak for being a 
>Pom.

In the words of Richard Pryor, a black comedian, "Take the Irish; a
nation with no Jews, no blacks, no Hispanics - what do they do?  They
improvise."  LOL!  It's a human thing, usually based on either real life
bad experiences or a lack of good experiences.

>Australia was going through a "cutting of apron strings" phase then, 
>it
>seemed to be very important that Australia be completely independent 
>from
>the UK. It was socially quite acceptable to actively discriminate 
>against
>anyone from England. I took a few beatings at primary school, but gave 
>as 
>good as I got, and none were serious attempts to hurt me, it was just 
>a 
>dominance thing, almost good-natured. 
>
I guess we see the lines we want to see?  I know I struggle with a few
going to college the first time in the era of the Iran Hostage crisis. 
I
work on that but sometimes my own unguarded thoughts make me blush.

>Now the UK is.. almost irrelevant to us. Of no more importance than, 
>say,
>Canada anyway. Less important than the US.
>But I've seen no Pom-bashing, either literally or figuratively, in 
>nearly
>30 years. Things in some small ways have gotten better.
>

I think it's the same here.  

I must admit to using my paternal Grandmother's heritage recently
though.
 There was this really nice lady who was waiting at the hair salon (I
get
my hair cut there since my wife and kids use them.) We got to talking (I
had been talking Woody as he cut my hair about my mother growing up in a
30% Hispanic/30% black/30% white/10% Asian part of L.A. and how that
part
of Los Angeles had changed to almost 100% Hispanic) and she said how
much
she wished we would stop letting all these "foreigners" into our country
and taking our jobs (I know the jobs they take, most of my current
neighbors would not work them unless it was the last job on earth) so I
just dropped the little comment, "My father is	Cherokee (truth but why
confuse her with percentages) and I know some relatives who feel the
Whites were the first illegal aliens; but you guys seem to have worked
out to be good contributing citizens."	

I had to leave shortly after that but she seemed to  be thinking out the
implications of that comment maybe for the first time.	At least we
parted amicably.  

Enough rambling on my part.

Gracias,
Glenn
.
6 mm miniatures rule!  Well, anyway in my mind they do!
.

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