[lit-ideas] Re: Question
- From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:35:08 -0400
"John McCreery" writes:
: On 9/8/06, Steve Chilson <stevechilson@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: >
: > I read somewhere, whether or not it is true of course is left to having
: > read it somewhere - but anyway, read somewhere that during WW2, Alabama
: > or some place nearby, they let Nazi prisoners being housed in that state
: > freedom that they wouldn't give the blacks who were American. Is that
: > true or just urban mirth?
:
: I wouldn't know about that, though I've heard similar rumors. I
: recall, however, a belief attributed to the ancient Greeks that the
: stranger at the door should be treated hospitably, since the gods
: sometimes take on human form to walk among us mortals. I also recall
: accounts of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, an occasion on which all sorts
: of darkly colored royalty were treated with pomp and circumstance.
:
: And, on a final note, I remember just recently hearing one of my
: Georgia relatives mention something we heard from our grandmother when
: the word "nigger" came up: "There are black niggers and white niggers,
: but a nigger's a nigger." Andy's remark was spot on. The presumption
: was that the black you knew as a nigger was a nigger. A stranger,
: especially with more "Aryan" features and a foreign accent--he might
: be something else.
I remember that nearly fifty years ago a friend at college told me
that when he was in prep school he wanted to invite a couple of
friends to come home with him to North Carolina for the Spring
break. The trouble was that they were going to go by car and
one of the group was black so they had to figure out some way
that they could all eat in roadside diners and restaurants on
the way South.
The solution was for the black to wear his best suit and a silk
turban and to speak only French. His two friends, when they
were in a restaurant, always addressed him as "Your Highness."
They had no difficulties.
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu
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