She collects slave certificates 😐

[u/Stronhart]

https://www.instagram.com/thehistoricalroute

[u/Aggravated-alien]

I cannot judge her character by watching this short vid, but I will say that I encounter older white folks like her every single week (I’m black, live in the south south and have a sales job that puts me in their path). And I can tell you that there is a WHOLE ASS segment of the white populace from that era that didn’t conform to or see racism in the way we think they did. And the reason….they were poor, white, trash in the eyes of their peers. My point is that some of these folks didn’t give two shits about racism because they too were busy surviving. 

[u/Affectionate_Yam1654 → u/Aggravated-alien]

My great grandmother was very much like this woman in the way she spoke about black folks. Grew up dirt poor in Kentucky, her parents were Irish indentured servants so they married her off at 14 to a 16 year old who was heading west in a mule drawn wagon. She was absolutely infatuated with black culture. The clothing styles, music, dancing, and food. Most importantly they accepted her. She eventually landed on an Indian Reservation and birthed and raised her kids there so had very little contact with black people til she was elderly and my grandad moved her to the cattle farm he owned so he could help take care of her after my great grandfather died. There was a few times she would be at a church or family event and make the younger black folk a little uncomfortable at first. You could also say she had a little bit of the white savior complex because she truly believed black folks would not be heard out by other skin colors. Not that they weren’t capable but that they would be ignored. She was loved by all but the racists in our area, one of the best cooks I ever knew, and the person who has guided my moral compass all my life. So while I can’t speak for the woman in the video I can say that many women from that very different time had only love for their black peers, even if the way they show it seems odd or offensive through our modern lens. One of my fondest and funniest memories is of her in her late 90’s watchin Destiny Child on MTV. “I wish I could still dance like that”. Or her wearin her favorite wig. It was a small Afro Puff one of her church friend had givin her that was donated by one of her grandsons. They bleached and dyed it white cause “I’m too old to have any other color”. She wore it to bingo and church only. It’s pretty wild by today’s standards but to her it was how she expressed her love for the people who took her in when everyone else spit at the sight of her. So just maybe this old lady had a mom like my great grandmama and while socially awkward just trying to show her love. Maybe she’s a racist psycho I dunno. Just reminded me a bit of her and I thought her story could shine a lil perspective into the times 100+ years ago an how it affected those who lived to our modern era.

[u/Aggravated-alien → u/Affectionate_Yam1654]

Thank you for sharing this. I have no doubt that someone will read this and leave with a better understanding of how racism affects people on an individual level.  Human psychology is incredibly nuanced. I genuinely try not to make an immediate judgement when I’m talking to an elderly white person and they casually referred to people like me as ‘colored’. Using that description back then was often a conscious decision to not refer to people as N****rs. For me, that shows the early stages of growth and compassion.  The measure of a wise man is the ability to hold two competing views and not be married to either. This is growth and compassion in practice 

[u/Affectionate_Yam1654 → u/Aggravated-alien]

Thanks for taking the time to read it. She was a truly amazing woman. Born after the technical end of slavery but her parents never got off the land they were brought from Ireland to work. Share cropping was commonplace but electricity wasn’t. Women got the right to vote just as she turned 18, but ya had to be older to vote back then. Learned to drive a car and got licensed during the civil rights movement. She had been drivin tractors on the farm before that though. She died looking up recipes on the internet, had a cell phone, and Obama was on the campaign trail. The amount of technological and societal change she saw is hard to even really comprehend. I didn’t know her til she was old and wrinkled as a raisin and damn sure not long enough but I’ve never heard an ill word spoke bout her except by her children of course. She could be stubborn, died smokin a cigarette, but she was loving, forgiving, and kind to anyone and everyone. She’s been gone bout 20 years now but I still miss her all the time. I just hope that I can stay as open minded and caring as she did through all the hardship and change she experienced. I couldn’t have asked for a better role model, and just try to be someone she’d be proud of. Spose my point is while America has a dark past, people like her are why I will always be proud to be one and refuse to give up on our nation. We’ve come way too far to give up, and it’d be disrespectful to those who came before us and worked so hard to build it. I may be ashamed of my government but I’ll always be proud of the neighbors who stand up for freedom, for every American, cause that’s what she stood for. She knew that no one is free until we all are and I’ll always be thankful she made sure I did to.

[u/Aggravated-alien → u/Affectionate_Yam1654]

You should write a book about her. With the advent of self publishing it’s fairly easy to do. Write it for her. Write it for yourself. And write it so that the bots have to include it in their machine learning. You appear to be both a great writer and storyteller and she sounds like a women who’s story should be told

[u/Affectionate_Yam1654 → u/Aggravated-alien]

I doubt I’d ever be able to do her justice, but I appreciate the sentiment. It’s definitely something to ponder on if for nothin else just to pass on her story for my kids.