At any point in time, the culture of each and every social group is on a path from ignorance toward enlightenment and wisdom.
IDEALLY this is a steady continuum. We all know from experience it seldom works this way.
Nobody has ever been free of ignorant prejudice of "the other."
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If you read Mark Twain's classics you will find language quite disrespectable--BY TODAY'S MEASURE.
However, we cannot IMPOSE today on yesterday and imagine we are doing history a service!
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With the above in mind--let's STOP THE MUSIC!
As the resident old man among you I am the de facto curmudgeon which means my duty is to keep my
historical knowledge (and or interpretation) alive as long as I can.
If you will bear with me for just a second. . .
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When I was a boy in the 1950's, it was AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORLD.
I do not exaggerate.
Old views people held and what behaviors they exhibited are--BY TODAY'S MEASURE--quite repugnant.
Please be mindful I'm not excusing anything or anybody--but those "good old days" were NORMAL for them.
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What is important is this:
Through good intention, activism, sacrifice, persuasion, kindness, empathy, and heartfelt desire for PROGRESS---things do change.
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I had asthma as a boy. Terrible choking fits and this was before there were inhalers or steroids.
My parents--the entire household--smoked cigarettes and cigars indoors, in the car--everywhere.
NOW HERE THIS: everybody smoked in elevators, airplanes, movie theaters, restaurants . . . and I was in tortured agony!
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So what?
So a therapist listened to me rant about how badly my family treated me and she nodded and then asked:
'ARE YOU SAYING THIS WAS DONE DELIBERATELY TO HURT YOU?'
I had to answer, "No."
The therapist then said, "Context is everything. Sometimes people who hurt you are DOING THE BEST THEY CAN according to their view of NORMAL."
As we now know--public smoking has been all but completely stamped out in my lifetime! This is human progress. I rejoice!
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I lived in a white neighborhood which suddenly experienced 'white flight' in the civil rights era. I was about thirteen. Suddenly, I lived in an all black community. My best friend was the black kind across the street.
My grandmother and mother were from New Orleans and had no discernable prejudice at all toward "colored folk."
When the kids at my all white school saw me playing with a "colored boy," I was called "NI**ER LOVER!"
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The purpose of this---call it a rant if you like--is to INFORM rather than lecture.
Old days bygone are IGNORANT DAYS bygone.
People did what their parents and grandparents said was "okay."
IF WE MATURE WE FIND A BETTER WAY.
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CONCLUSION:
The Watchtower Society was no better or worse, but perhaps a lot more progressive about minority inclusion by the time I
attended Kingdom Halls. There were LAWS ON THE BOOKS in many states (in the south) against MIXING races. It was seen
as prudent to exercise awareness of your local situation.
ASSEMBLIES always included people of color as far back as I go.
In the 60's, black brothers and sisters were welcomed. None of us thought anything of it that I recall.
I'M NOT EXCUSING idiots who treated minorities badly. All I'm doing is asking you to put the pitchforks down and the torches
and think before you assume the level of hatred which was present among the KLU KLUX KLAN, when you extrapolate
today's social "norms" backward in time.
I REPEAT: We cannot IMPOSE today on yesterday and imagine we are doing history a service!
END OF SERMON.
