Joe wrote:
"I grew up in the 50/60s south of the Mason Dixon Line in an area that was about half black. I never had any problems, either, because I knew good and bad people of all walks of life and colors, and often worked alongside and played with them as I had from my childhood. It wasn't until the agitators from DC came down and started friction that I even noticed much that the differences were there, as 'black and white' had just been descriptors like tall and short or thin and fat to us."
I realize that neither you nor anyone else in the forum will agree with me, but the reason you were able to live that way -- in relatively close proximity to blacks yet still maintain "a peace" -- was because of that much-maligned policy called "Jim Crow".
It provided a "structure" by which the races could exist near each other without too much clashing or friction.
It was only once this system was forcibly dismantled by Northerners that racial friction began to increase.
Of course, I had no problems with J.C. when I lived down south (1960/61), but then again, I'm of Euro ancestry.
BTW, I also believe that the event which led to the destruction of South Africa was the dismemberment of Apartheid. They should have kept it, and told the rest of the world to mind its own business...
