Integration

During my second grade year, my fellow students and I were required to take a bus from our predominately Mexican American elementary school on the north side of town to a predominately African American elementary school on the south side of Fort Worth.  This long bus ride was the school district's attempt to desegregate the Fort Worth area.  

What I remember from this time is that I was in a class room of my peers, other bused students, also Mexican American or White, and that my teacher was Mexican American.  I remember that the school was old and had a cloak room instead of lockers and that we were largely keep away from the rest of the student body.  I don't know if this was to keep us separated because of race, or if it was because we were separated due to grades.   

I remember playing marbles with my friends on the playground, but I don't remember hanging out with any black kids. So were we really integrated?

Today it seems that this attempt at integration was simply done to appear to be in compliance with Brown vs Board of Education ruling. Although the decision to end the "separate but equal" doctrine came down from the Supreme Court in 1954, schools districts in the south, like in Fort Worth, didn't begin to "integrate" until the sixties.  Integration by busing remained in place into the early 80's. 

Interment Camps

I read Snow Falling on Cedars several years ago, and I remember watching a movie with my mother about the Japanese interment camps when I was a young girl.  I don't remember anything about the movie, except I remember a Japanese American having his loyalty questioned because he kept carrier pigeons.  He wound up killing all the pigeons to prove his loyalty. This, however, didn't save him from the interment camps.  

This act of racism infuriates and terrifies me.  Many of the Japanese people were American citizens who had been living here for many generations.  We, the American government, decided they were a threat and so they were put into camps and forced to leave their homes and their businesses, and their friends so that the government could keep an eye on them.  They lost their businesses, their homes, their land because their loyalty was questioned. 

As I was reading the NYTimes article, I wondered about the Italian Americans and their treatment during the war.  I googled and found this: Civil Rights Suffered by Italian Americans.  I am amazed because I had never heard of Italian Americans civil rights violations during this time. According to this link, the American government did not want me to know. 

It brings to mind the treatment of Americans from the middle east and how they have been treated since 9-11.  And it makes me wonder, is anyone ever truly safe? Will my loyalty ever be questioned?  Will I ever be removed from my home?  


Besides the readings


Susan B. Anthony has been on my mind today: 

*Join me in demanding that the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hold a new hearing on birth control —and this time to have a meaningful representation of women and mothers!