https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/29/1374127/-What-Do-Conservatives-Want-When-They-Say-When-I-Want-My-Country-Back?detail=emailclassic
How often have I heard or seen this phrase, "I want my country back," used over the years since I was born in 1956, in Raleigh, North Carolina? I can't give you a precise number, but I can tell you that, though I've seen liberals employ these words on occasion over the nearly six decades of my life, most of the time it has been the mantra of white male conservatives. Indeed, many self-identified "Tea Party" members have repeatedly used this term as their personal call to arms.
What do they mean when they say that? To which supposed golden age of America do they want to return? Who can say what is in the hearts of such people? But I have some ideas based on my experiences over the years.
As a child born in the middle of the Fifties in the South, I knew at an early age that some people were considered inferior to me. The signs were all around - literally. I remember once, when I was three or four, a white woman stopped me as I approached a drinking fountain, thirsty after being dragged around on a hot summer day by my mother on one of her shopping trips to Raleigh's downtown. The woman, politely, but sternly, took hold of my arm, and told me I couldn't use that fountain because it was for "colored people." A fountain not much different than this one:
My memory is a little vague after that, but I do recall talking with my mother about it later. She must have been embarrassed, for she had a hard time explaining why there were different water fountains for people based on the color of their skin. It didn't make much sense to me as a child, and I imagine she had difficulty understanding how to explain the concept of racism to her incessantly curious little boy.
What was most disorienting to my mother and father were the vast number of unwritten rules regarding how the two races were supposed to relate to one another, and the assumption that everyone, black and white, implicitly understood these rules, rules of which my parents were ignorant. For example, thanks to the poverty of so many "colored" folks, even my parents could afford to hire a maid to help clean our house twice a week after we moved to Cary, NC when I was three. Our maid, Annie, was about as light skinned as one could get and still be recognized as not white enough to pass. My mother had trouble from the get go with her, because while Annie knew the boundaries of what constituted acceptable behavior between a black maid and her white employer, my mother did not.
My mom was constantly wrong-footing herself with Annie, trying to do things like eat lunch with her or help Annie do her work, things Annie understood would be taken the wrong way had they been observed by other whites. She did her best to explain to Mom that such things just weren't done, but my mother was stubborn, and didn't see why she should treat Annie any differently than she would treat anyone else. To Annie, my mother was her white boss, a somewhat clueless if well-meaning one, but her boss nonetheless. To my mother, Annie was her friend, one to whom she felt closer to than many of the native white Carolinian housewives that lived all around us. Yet, even my mother had to face the reality of Annie's situation at times.
this is a long article but i think the read is informative and as long as you're reading with an open mind there is no problem with understanding the two different dynamics. many today act as though they don't but IMO it's a refusal to except for some those are the people who suffer the post today they fight against a truth the know exist while trying to say it doesn't. some say they didn't do it while true ignoring it and allowing it to permeate society by silence is just as complicit as holding the whip.
So, when I hear someone say that they want to take their country back, I cannot help but look at the person making that statement and wonder, which country do they want? The one that used police to bust up unions? The one that made lynchings a celebratory outing?
The one that preached a woman should be happy staying home, raising the kids and catering to her husband's every whim? The one where homosexuals hid their sexual orientation from all but their closest confidantes out of fear their careers and lives would be destroyed, and that they would be disowned by their families?
The one where black people could not eat in the same restaurants at which white people ate, or drink from the same water fountains, or attend the same schools or live in the same neighborhoods or ....
I don't want my country back. I want a better country. One that truly provides liberty and justice for all people. And I certainly don't want a country where anyone can discriminate against anyone else of whom they do disapprove and escape liability for that immoral and otherwise unlawful act under any pretext, be it freedom of religion, racial superiority or traditional values.
I never want to go back to the country that existed when I was born. The one that exists now needs far too much improvement as it is.
please read the rest. and thank you and God Bless the author
