Too Old to Care

We are white and were born in the 1960s. We are not anti-racists and don’t fear being called a racist.

When we were kids, we saw black and white Americans dying in Vietnam in vivid color on TV and in magazines. We were huge sports fans and loved players like Willie Mays, Dr. J, and OJ Simpson. Mohamid Ali was “the greatest” and we did not care about that Nation of Islam thing. We learned about Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe and to us they were gods, even though our grandfathers may not have been so impressed.

We read Hemmingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Wright in high school. In History class, we learned about great Americans and some of them were black. We learned about slavery and the greatness of our founding. The Civil War was a tragedy for all involved. We learned about the winners and losers and found goodness in both.

We saw that Northern cities were as racist as Southern ones. We read Malcom X well before the movie. We know what racism is and it is not complicated.

At times we challenged racist friends and family. Other times we regretted we hadn’t.

We grew up with Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court and the murder of Martin Luther King. Our fathers liked Flip Wilson and we liked Eddie Murphy. Roots and Gone with The Wind had lasting impacts on us. We cried during Brian’s Song. We grew up with Motown and we think The Ballad of Curtis Loew is sad and profound.

Many of us lived and worked with black Americans in close quarters aboard ships or in the field. Some of us played with blacks on teams. We have worked for blacks. We have hired blacks when we shouldn’t have and have fired blacks well after we should have.

Whether we voted for Obama or not was based on our politics, not on his skin color.

We took Martin Luther King at his word. We try to be color blind and now that is wrong. We are vilified by no nothings and the credentialed alike. Some of us were weak and have taken a knee. Others have found solace in gated, mostly white communities. The majority continue to live life with the same values.

Most of us will never be proud to be white. We will also never be ashamed of something we had no control over. We think those asking for reparations or other handouts based on race are pussies. We care what your ancestors went through but it has nothing to do with you. Too many recent black, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants have had great success in this country to even consider the whining calls for reparations.

Call us whatever you like. Too old to care. Too young to not fight back.