Prejudice:

This is a sensitive subject that people tend to not talk about except in generalities or accusations. Some of us older folk lived through it and actually remember what it was like. When I was in the Air Force I had a buddy who was black. We were not only military members who knew we had each others backs but we were also friends. Neither of us could take the other home as his folks would make me stay on the porch and my folks would do the same. We would not be allowed inside the others home.  Neither of our folks saw us as  persons or friends. Neither of us saw the other through the color of our skin but only as good friends. 

I was being sent overseas and I took a bus from Michigan to S. Carolina and was traveling with two Air Force buddies who were black. When the bus hit the Mason Dixon line in Maryland it pulled over and the driver came back and told my two buddies to move to the back of the bus. We were all in uniform and I got up to go with them not sure what was happening. He said I could not go but I went anyway. He refused to move the bus until I moved back up front. 

I informed him he was not man enough to make me move and so we sat in place for what seemed a very long time. Finally the other passengers were complaining to the driver about the heat as that was before air conditioning. He tried once more to persuade me to move and I refused. I told him we were serving our country and the color of our skin didn't change that and to move would put my USAF buddies in a different class of people than me. He finally gave up and drove the bus leaving us all together in the back. 

The further south we went the more the prejudice was apparent. Separate drinking fountains, separate eating places etc. My buddies insisted I not go with them to those areas as it would just make it rough on them. Initially it broke my heart but soon just thoroughly pissed me off. 

My first exposure to prejudice was in High School. I used to play intermural basketball with a black classmate called Rex. He was 7' tall and a very good basketball player. I had asked him why he didn't go out for the school team and he was non committal so I asked him if he minded if I asked the coach to give him a try out. He didn't care so I went to the coaches office where he flew into a rage saying no black (not exactly his words) would be on his team and he threw me out of his office. I found that disgusting.   

Then in 1964 I was in the USAF criminal investigation unit and was sent to a FBI class on how to deal with the new civil rights law. The two agents basically gave examples of how to get around the law which was nothing more than continuing to promote prejudice. Again disgusting. 

There are more incidences of prejudice like when I was dating an airline stewardess who was Italian. When her parents found out they put a stop to that as she could only date Italians and for sure not an Irishman like myself. Prejudice has been around a very long time but in my lifetime I have seen huge changes for the better but then I have early experiences to compare it with. Maybe one day it will no longer be a subject that hateful people can use to pit people against each other. I can only hope so as I have experienced both sides of it and witnessed its harmful effects. 

When people who have no idea who or what I am sling that prejudice slur at me it pisses me off to no end. First they don't know what real prejudice is and secondly they don't know me. I am prejudice though against ignorant people who have no clue but pretend they do.