Aug 11 2008
Race on the Road: Where is the Diversity?
Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes both died over the weekend. I liked Hayes in South Park, but I’ll be honest, I thought Bernie Mac’s comedy was irritating. Nonetheless, both did well in bringing more black faces to the small screen– the television industry’s chronic tokenization was embraced by both, then ruthlessly used to give them greater exposure and celebrity.
That’s one thing about living in an RV: most of the people we encounter at the parks are white. This probably has something to do with the longstanding (and not altogether untrue) belief among African Americans that there’s something inherently foolish about deliberately sleeping out of doors.
No matter where we’ve gone, from Arizona to Atlanta to Florida, the faces around us are predominantly white. I wonder if the lack of diversity is a function of the parks we’ve been to, or of the lifestyle itself. Certainly, we’re not in the urban centers, although we did stay terrifying close to Camden, New Jersey in June.
I suspect it’s due to the company, really. While our neighbors are friendly and helpful to us, I’ve found myself gritting my teeth and trying to think of a polite way to hold someone’s head underwater to get them to stop using “the n word” in a hot tub conversation. If I were contemplating going camping or even living the full-timer lifestyle, I would certainly think twice about uprooting myself from my own support network if I experienced that kind of welcome.
It does not speak well for the future fate of this nation when my overwhelming impression of our country is that too many people are too quick to judge others based on the colors of their skins. In addition to the “n word” guy, I’ve been told by some otherwise seemingly intelligent people that “the Cubans are all crooks, and you can’t understand them” (to which a quietly spoken “we speak Spanish” was enough to inform that, perhaps, we are not the people she mistook us for).
It may simply be an aspect of camping mostly in the South, as well, but I doubt it. We encountered “n word” guy, after all, in our own home town of Santa Cruz, California– a bastion of liberalism and tolerance (which is why I didn’t hold his head underwater in the hot tub).
7 Responses to “Race on the Road: Where is the Diversity?”
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Thank you for posting this. You are brave. My husband and I (both African Americans) have wanted to become full timers for the past 3 years. I however have been afraid to travel to far from home because of what we may encounter. I wish more people were like you so all people would feel comfortable seeing this beautifull country of ours.
You know, you make a sweeping generalization about white Southerners and the way we view the world. I think what you encountered speaks more to the lifestyle of those who choose to live out of an RV. Racism rears its ugly head all over the world, in every single ethnic group. It shows neither “liberalism” nor “tolerance” to assume that all white Southerners are ignorant hillbillies.
Tina, may I make a sweeping generalization about your reading comprehension, then? Because you clearly didn’t read the entire sentence, nor the rest of the paragraph.
Please, forgive me. I supposed it is easy to misinterpret the convoluted ramblings of a self proclaimed Buddha.
thank you for this review, I’ve been talking to my husband recently about going on the road ,we are black with 2 kids, and I believe that there is so much to experience in this life that we don’t get due to the fact that we get use to what is considered “Normal”. I feel boxed and hindered by 4 walls.(smile) It’s also my belief that the way to change peoples attitudes is to show them something different. The images most people get of other races are designed to make money. When the chance presents itself to meet someone different than yourself take a chance talk, you maybe surprised that my dreams are not so differnt than yours.
Wow Tina… that seems uncalled for and very much akin to what she is talking about… JUDGING PEOPLE YOU DONT KNOW. You sound like someone who might not be very accepting of others, be it their race or their religion.
“It shows neither “liberalism” nor “tolerance” to assume that all white Southerners are ignorant hillbillies”.
You scratch the “New” South, the old one is still there, waiting to hang someone.
This nation’s biggest and continuing problem is the south and until that is solved, once and forever; we will always have problems with the south.