Not too long ago, I did a series of interviews where I interviewed my aunts, my uncle, and my mom about what it was like to grow up in the south during the 50s and 60s. For those of you who may not be aware, the laws of the time which segregated black people from white peoples were known as Jim Crow laws.
Part of my desire to capture these untold stories from loved ones who actually lived it was to get a better appreciation of the historical traumatic reality that they had to face.
One of the things that struck me when I spoke to all four of them was that they each said one particular point.
This is just how it was.
Can you wrap your mind around the reality that you had a large scale group of people who were being exposed to the most depressing and disturbing situation and it was normal for them?
My generation was the first generation to actually grow up in an integrated society in terms of access to services, educational systems, and countless other systems and resources which were not readily made available to my parents generation. I was intimately familiar with all of the different things my mom’s generation did in order to survive and thrive. And the interesting part of speaking with my family members was that they understood the reality they were facing.
In their world, there was no perceived threat. There was no perception that someone was going to come to take your job. There was no perception that someone was going to come over and take your livelihood. There was no perception that someone was going to come over and cause you harm. There was no perceived, imaginary threat.
They lived in a reality where making the wrong move would result in actual death. Making the wrong move could cause significant harm. Making the wrong move could cause you to be incarcerated. These weren’t perceived threats. These were actual threats.
And I wanted to really get this because when I was speaking to her I wanted to fully appreciate the reality that we still have millions of individuals that are alive today who went through this experience. No one is questioning how far we’ve come. No one’s questioning the strides we have made. However, it’s important to recognize that we still have a large population of people who went through a disturbing and depressing experience and found ways to survive and thrive despite that experience. But that experience doesn’t just go away just because things have gotten better for subsequent generations.
My mothers generation is my access to a living history of a time that I will never be able to fully appreciate. More importantly, it’s important that we recognize that we still have people here who have lived the worst experience so when they are telling you they see things that mirror that experience, maybe we should listen.
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