shonilane:

madgastronomer:

unitsoul:

cinderfell:

so i think i mentioned how my entire junior class got to sit in our auditorium and listen to ruby bridges talk about racism for two hours yesterday, but i didn’t talk about one of the most powerful moments in the presentation?

so we got to the end—like, the last twenty minutes—and she asked for questions. and we had a few standard questions (”how do you feel about people taking their education for granted?” “what would you say to the people who stood outside and protested you going to school if you met them again?”) but there was this kid waiting in the question line fidgeting nervously. and everybody could see it?? when he finally got up to ask his question, he asked her about her opinion on the events on ferguson.

and she mentioned her sons again, who she talked about earlier in the presentation. and then she told us about her son who was murdered. and she talked about the mothers who had their children taken away and how if you took a life unjustly and forsake your role as a keeper of the peace, you should be punished. and then she talked about how everybody chooses a side in this thing; good and evil.

and then she said that racism today is scarier than it was to her when she was growing up.

and the entire junior class was silent.

for those of you who don’t know, Ruby Bridges was the first black american child (one of the first???) to go to an all white school in the south, meaning all those photos you’ve seen of little black kids being harassed by a violent mob full of white adults - she grew up with that. and despite growing up in that environment she still thinks racism today is scarier than when she was growing up. idk but that comment got to me. 

to everyone who has said that racism is gone or isnt as bad as it used to be “back then” - here’s someone who grew up “back then” saying that not only is racism is still alive today, but it’s even scarier than it was when she was growing up. go and read that comment again and think about it

For those who don’t know, the famous Norman Rockwell painting of the little Black girl being escorted by four US Marshals? That’s Ms. Bridges.

She was one of the first six Black children chosen to integrate New Orleans schools. Two of those chose to stay at their original schools after all. The other three went to a different school. Ruby was alone. Six years old, and all alone, escorted to and from school by US Marshals assigned to her personally by President Eisenhower.

White children pulled out of school when she was enrolled. White teachers refused to teach her. Only one teacher could be found who was willing to teach her, and that woman taught a class of one for an entire year. She received daily death threats, including from one woman who waited for her every single day in order to threaten to poison her. She could eat only food prepared at home that her Marshals had kept watch over. Her father lost his job. Her grandparents, who were sharecroppers, were turned off their land.

And she says racism is more frightening today.

Well, damn.

(Source: rangervex, via lupinatic)