'Those People?'

I've heard the phrase for a lifetime.."Those people..." The first time I heard that phrase it rendered a distinct definition. "Those people were any 'peoples' who were people of a color other than 'white.' Now, before you get all rankled remember the old adage: 'You shit your friends and I'll shit my friends but let's not shit one another.'

"Those people" is a phrase that has been used by White folks throughout the history of this country. That first time I referenced hearing the phrase was in my youth back in East St. Louis. There was a few Blacks driving through our 1950's neighborhood and I overheard a neighborhood gentleman say, "Those people don't know their place." During my first college baseball season (1958), our team bus was pulling out of a gasoline station in the Deep South when somebody pointed out several young black children waving at us. One teammate said, "It's a shame 'those people' grow up, they're so cute as little kids." Many years later, I was sitting in a Highland, Illinois bar on a summer afternoon. The tavern door was open and suddenly, I heard a voice say, "What the hell are 'those people' doing?" I looked out the open door to see two black men putting gasoline in their auto at a service station across the street.

My first year coaching at Stephen Decatur high school in 1998, I placed an announcement for basketball practice to be at 5:30AM the first week. My assistant coach told me that several teachers in the lounge said, "Those kids' won't show up that early for practice...why that new coach is crazy."
It really pissed me off. Therefore I telephoned two Black mothers of players whom I had never met    and told them that I was told 'those kids' will not make it to a 5:30AM Practice. It must have pissed the mothers off also because I held the first week of practice every year thereafter at 5:30AM and NEVER had one kid late or absent. I wish I could forget that incident because it still pisses me off to this day!

Okay, I just wish my President would stop using the phrase 'those people' because some bigots just might think it's code for darker skin. Somebody should tell him. Say what???
You 'THINK' he knows?

PS. Many of my Black brothers and sisters would do well to embrace and promote assimilation rather than clinging or pointing to a past seeking reparations.
(Touch)
We Are The World