"N" word at the KH

by sableindian 22 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  sableindian

  I went to a racially mixed congregation in the Northern suburbs of Illinois. I found that things done in the congregation if done on a job would cause a person to get fired. (In fact I know a JW who was fired for sexual harrassment. I know he was purplexed seeing that he probably could quote a scripture about what he did.)

  Anyway, I experienced gross insensitivity.

  1. racial jokes repeated by White pioneers and thinking it was alright because a Black person (JW) told them the joke.
  2. Elder using slang to newly membered Black children because he thought all Black urban children talked that way. The parent had to explain to him that the children did not understand him.
  3. labeling the neighborhood as not only Jewish but negative slurs about the Jewish neighbors.
  4. Calling a child the "N" word in anger by an elder's wife.
  5. Coming into the bathroom and hearing that one mother of her iligitimate child speaking to another mother of her iligitimate child that she would not allow her child to marry the other (these are fairly new borns, ok?) because the child is too black.
  6. Elder using the "N" word in describing wordly people
  7. Elder calling worldy people in the territory "Ubangis" (Circuit elder at the time is now on GB)

  #'s 4-7 were done by Blacks and #4 was done to her own child. And yes, I called her on it. She thought I was out of line and focused on the child's wrong doing to justify her calling him this..."name".

  Of course, there is more. But these stand out in my mind. In fact I had a son who #4's daughter liked. And I reminded him of the incident and asked him if he wanted her to call his child that? Of course, that ended the relationship. My son is happy and living with his wife and new son in Michigan. He was the first child who stood up and said he refused to go back to the KH. He did this in high school. I did not force him to return. The elders were angry at me for not allowing him to return. My husband, who was a JW could not interfere. He was not there in a spiritual way for his children. I took care of that and I was not the JW.

  I am proud of my son. (He's a typical strong Leo)
• 

  DevonMcBride

  This doesn't surprise me considering their old publications also have really stupid racial remarks.

  Devon
• 

  AlanF

  : Elder calling worldy people in the territory "Ubangis" (Circuit elder at the time is now on GB)

  Which one of those morons was that?

  AlanF
• 

  Swan

  That's horrible! I am so sorry to see those kinds of things still going on, although I have been told racial jokes by those who thought it was okay because it was a "cute" joke. I guess if you label it cute, that makes an offensive joke okay. I just thought it was wrong and I said so.

  Tammy
• 

  minimus

  Alan F, could it have been Sam Herd? .....I heard of an old brother that used to say the N word all the time. Once he commented to the bookstudy about "the nigger pool". It didn't go over well with the black bookstudy overseer.
• 

  sableindian

  AlanF, the name of the man is Samuel Herd. He also used the term "nappy hair" in describing the fashion of a woman not wearing her hair straight. (Black women) at a circuit assembly. This was in the 90s in Chicago. The other incident was in the 70s in Los Angeles, Calif.

  He has a daughter and he probably made sure her head was fried and burned until she left the house. But think of all the people he must hold in disgust just because of the way Jehovah made the pores in their scalp. Unbelievable!
• 

  shera
• 

  DanTheMan

  Could someone tell this suburban white boy what a "Ubangi" is?
• 

  AlanF

  I don't understand this at all, sableindian. Herd is supposed to be the "token black" on the GB. From your description, his comments don't sound like the good natured kidding that lots of people do to one another. Do you have any ideas?

  Some of your descriptions triggered memories. I grew up in a Long Island area where the JW congregations were quite mixed racially. I remember where I and my best friend (a young man of extremely mixed racial background; we were only 18 and terribly naive) held Bible weekly studies with a black woman who was a real character. She was a grandmother and was from the deep south. One day she had her grandkids at the house while we did the study. I remember laughing after she told one of them, who was acting up, "Git yo nappy haid outta heah!" She also had a big German Shepherd named Nick that she had to put away when we came because he'd bit us otherwise. One time she was telling us about Nick's having gone after a neighbor. She commented, "He bite me! Ah kick his ass!" And she would, too.

  A guy who posts on this board from time to time (JT) often gives some personal glimpses of some of the black JW officials he knew when he was at Bethel years ago. He knew J.R. Brown, and in some private conversations with me indicated that Brown may have some of the same kinds of issues as Herd seems to. It seems that they try to imitate their white masters too much. Of course, any Bethelite has to do the same to get ahead there, "walking the walk and talking the talk" quite literally. I keep in mind that the older GB members are mostly old white males raised in the U.S. or other English speaking countries, and have many of the traditional stupid mores and prejudices that so many of such people have.

  AlanF
• 

  ugg

  deeply deeply grieving....