It’s been a few days since I posted about Jim Crow. A thought crossed my mind that deserved more attention. I am black and grew up in the south under that system and at the height of it’s destruction, some what. I had never given thought to how it affected any other group that was not white. Did they experience the same things I did? Did New Mexico and Arizona have Mexican only water faucets and bathrooms? Were there separate waiting rooms for them at the bus station or doctor’s office? Did they ride in the back of the bus? How were the Native Americans fare? Or the Asians?
Originally, I was looking at the economic impact this system had on the country. south in particular. It cost so much more to operate your business if you had to have double everything. Does that make sense? It is one more example of the stupidity hatred creates. Think about this. For many of those business owners it was a black woman caring for their child or cooking their food. She was in their homes all day. They weren’t afraid of contamination there. They weren’t afraid of her blackness rubbing off on them when she cleaned their toilets and washed clothes? Then why couldn’t she sit next to them at a lunch counter or in a theater or a doctor’s office. They would have saved so much money.
Just a thought.
