Jim Crow's Demise
Jim Crow's Demise Curtis Johnson
Hello. I was born after the Civil War and met my fate after much civil unrest. You may have never encountered me, but some things you might already know. My name is Jim Crow, and I was born and lived in America not so long ago. I must confess that I was not a real individual, but rather a caricature designed to berate, distort, and ridicule an entire race of people. I really represented a system, behind which stood millions of people within the confines of these brave and free American states. They gave birth to and upheld me proudly. They used me to implement their blood-letting ideas throughout the south.
I caused lots of pain, inflicted wounds enough for a life time, and killed many innocent people. A psychological nightmare, I had no desire to change or compromise; but I was left with little to no choice. You see, people create the systems that they want to live under. So my case is no different from any other. The people changed; perhaps others simply disappeared to fight another day. So I changed, and more precisely, also disappeared. Like I said, I'm a system; so I flow the direction of the people. I tell you, most of my closest friends would rather pretend that I never existed. I resided in the southern region and inflicted innumerable emotional scares on certain people. Other pains were handed out if the targeted ones refused to conform or comply to my ways. My social order demanded that there be separation of Blacks and Whites. I know. You heard and read about "Apartheid" in South Africa; in America, it was Jim Crow. Let me use an example of a person who was affected by my abusive laws and regulations. He was born into my system and lived in this 'social order' for nearly 18 years. Let's say we assign to him the name Matson, and say he grew up in the 60's. Let's cite just a little bit of emotional abuse that would harm the best of us. According to Matson, he both survived and overcame me via "The Love of God".
I must say that it was not my idea to talk about these things. I along with others were given the theme, "Let's Talk About This", and was asked to write something about abuse. So I decided to write about emotional abuse, the type of abuse I'm most familiar with. I inflicted lots of it; so I ought to know. The inhumane treatments to my fellow humans are too numerous to note. Of course I never believed that they were humans anyway. But allow me to note just four ways or methods I used that no doubt left millions of emotional scares.
Abuse # One: Public Education. Matson had no choice but to attend schools both separate and unequal, in spite of the 1954 Supreme Court decision. In good weather or bad, if his parents had no transportation, he walked to school his first few years and later was bused on hand-me-down buses. From a very young age, he had to work after school in the cotton fields, which of itself is harmless; but if it infringed upon his school work, that was not harmless but rather daunting. And of course that too was designed by me to have such affect. It was my desire to prove that they were inferior intellectually and in every other way.
Abuse # two: Public Transportation. First, when Matson wanted to ride on a public bus, he paid his fare and proceeded to the back of the bus. If the preferred person boarded the bus and there were no more seats, Matson and or others like him had to give up their seat for that person. In present day America, much is said about 'the privaledged and the under priviledge'. In my era and neck of the woods, there were simply those who were privileged and those who were unprivileged.
Abuse # Three: Public Facilities. For starters, Matson has metermorphed several times since he was born. I did not determine or cause these transitions, but I did my best to use them to abuse people like Matson as much as I could. For example, Matson was born a Negro, but I called him another 'N' word when ever I could or wanted to. The "N" word was to demoralize and make him feel inferior. Matson was also known as "Colored" which seems to be the preferred public designation for the separation in public places like rest rooms, restaurants, hotels, or even using a public drinking fountain. People of Matson's race later was able to ban me, and they even began to determine the race name they wanted to be called. This took away the stigma that I loved to attach to the word "Black". I was disappointed that the word was no longer offensive to them.
Abuse # Four: Public Office. For the most part, I infringed upon the right to vote, and also prevented most Blacks from voting all together. Imagine being wounded and abused, and not having a hand or a process or a voice in healing your own affliction. Nothing suited me better than to make sure every black person was 'kept in their place' regardless of their financial or social status.
As history now reveals, I am no longer around, needed, or desired. I wrecked and ruined lives, causing havoc upon an entire generation of people until the whole nation said, "Enough!". I'm Jim Crow.
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