Certainly. I mean only that you were politicized and realized you could fight back against fascists in the street. It's always tougher when it's family, especially if you're a dependent minor. My dad was a racist, but not in the overtly hateful sense. He was more of the kind that thought Aboriginal people were lazy and just needed to learn better values from whites—that's how they'd get ahead. You just learned to keep your mouth shut and even to rationalize things to keep the peace.Marky Dread wrote: ↑12 Oct 2020, 12:15pmHowever I was just a teenager living at home so what am I going to do? The older generation always saw things different and I couldn't very well divorce my parents could I. I do remember saying stuff to my mum like stop using the term "coloured people" they are black and proud to be black if you have to see the colour at least respect they are black. We are ALL coloured.
Stepdad "mind how you talk to mother!!!".
The song "Racist Friend" by the Special AKA is great in some aspects but not when you're still a kid living at home hearing casual racism from an older generation. Holding your tongue and knowing your place is crucial to having a roof over your head and eating.
It was also tougher because he wasn't being clearly hateful. Harder for a teenager to properly enunciate why that kind of contempt is also horrible. To the day he died, he didn't believe there was any kind of systemic discrimination—everyone has an equal chance and just need to apply themselves. Because that was his life's experience. Grew up incredibly poor on a farm during the Great Depression, yet he made something of himself.