Back when I was 19 and living in Lee County, Alabama, I worked at this restaurant as a cook. One day, some co-workers and I were discussing Thanksgiving. A co-worker who was white mentioned black-eyed peas and collards. A black co-worker's eyes went wide open as he exclaimed "You eat black-eyed peas?" He seriously had no idea that white people did that.
Years later in a different setting, a black co-worker was telling me how it was growing up on his father's farm in rural Tennessee. He told me how he appreciates when people are open about what they believe. Neighboring white farmers made no secret about how they felt about race. But they would still conduct fair commerce with the black farmer, treating him as their equal. Despite his race, they found common ground with him.
We need to look for common ground in each other instead of focusing on the differences. Yes, I like collards, black-eyed peas, and corn bread. And when I have you over at my house to eat, that is what you will be served because they taste great.
That's a thing too... There is something interesting in the existing division in rural life between black and white communities. There is some intertwining - It is entangled, but still a difference.
Blues begins deep in the South... Mussel Shoals... The Delta... Country music knows that place, but comes more from the hill country - Scots Irish, with a lot of Ireland still present in the fiddle and the dance... They grew up together, but somewhat separate... And stayed that way. Two different cultures that are very much alike. Memphis is not that far from Nashville.
I recognize that difference. There is a yootoob vid that kinda spells it out, about a white redneck's first visit to a black cookout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gmKxkRZzP4 . What is telling to me is that such a difference exists in something so common to the two (BBQ,cookouts), especially with so much of it being the very same.
I can find common ground with any underdog of society. It's really not that difficult. In my current position, I overheard a drilling worker who was black make a comment about how he would be the one targeted for a beating when the police show up. I replied, "You think you're the only one who has taken an ass-whooping from the police?" Common ground.
Yep. That's there. My only real experience with blacks was in working alongside em. Not so much here - which is why it is a curiosity to me - but while I was in KC and points eastward drifting up toward Michigan... Ain't much for a cowboy to do over that way, so the work I started with was menial. Loading docks and digging. And I can hold my own with the best of em in that. I am a big boy, used to digging in rock, and earned my respect among em the hard way.
The same camaraderie existed there. Men straining against hard work, the color kinda rubs off. All the same, even after I got into better work in the trades, though Mexicans were more prevalent there... Still the same thing. Folks got to work together to move it forward.
And yeah - The ass-whoopin from the police. Not a whole lot different between black or white trash in that... With the exception at the time that weed was highly present with the blacks I was around, and not yet so in rednecks... So maybe a slight tilt in that - a cop was gonna find weed on a black guy, pretty sure. But I think redneck cocaine has pretty well equalized that too by now.
Btw, Can't get at collards up in here... Make do with beet greens in season, and kale or chard the rest of the time... And black-eyed peas are only around in the can - not the same.
