Ignorance Breeds Ignorance

Ignorance breeds ignorance. This was the first thought that entered my mind while viewing a talk show about the Ku Klux Klan.

The KKK is bad enough in itself, but the panelists, from some place in rural Georgia, were giving a bad impression of Southerners, in general, because they were acting rude, uncouth, and all seemed to have the maturity of ten or twelve year old children.

There was an elderly man who proclaimed himself to be the leader of the group, who included his own wife. There was a younger woman with two small children, and two young men who looked to be in their teens, or twenties. It was difficult to determine, because they were all attired in their Klansmen robes --including the children.

The reaction of the audience was hostile, of course, which made the panelists more angry, seemingly, further showing their immaturity.

Seeing this brought back an unpleasant memory of something that occurred when I was about ten or eleven years old.

We lived in Oxford, a little town in Alabama. A family of seven in two small rooms, in a building that was called "the mule barn", because that is what it had been at one time. We lived over the mule barn, because that was the best that Daddy, my stepfather, could do. He provided a roof over our heads, and food on the table. He was a good man, as much as he knew how to be.

When he got paid -- which was every two weeks -- he paid his bills, which included the bill at the small grocery store where he bought groceries every two weeks. The problem was that the bill that he would currently be paying, was for the groceries he had bought two weeks before, and the next two weeks' groceries would be bought on credit again. Never-the-less, he paid his bills on time.

After paying the grocery bill, he would pay any utilities due, which would have been for gas, water, and electricity -- because we had no other luxuries such as a telephone or anything else. Only after taking care of these responsibilities would he go to the bootlegger, pay his bill there, and get his supply of "white lightening" -- on credit, of course --which he would drink over the next two, or three, or four days. As a result of this, there were certain people who decided that he needed a lesson in "morality."

I will never forget how frightened we all were when we looked outside one night to see a cross burning in our yard, around which stood several men in hooded white garments. They stood silently, staring in menacing intimidation. We knew what the KKK was, and what they were capable of doing if their first warning went unheeded.
Perhaps, you are thinking that we were a black family who were victims of racism. We were not. We were a family who lived in poverty, and because of that, were considered "poor white trash." Bigotry, racism, hatred, and self righteousness of any kind...they come in all colors, and know no parameters.

I don't remember much more about that event, except that we moved shortly afterwards.
No, Daddy didn't change after that. He didn't know how to change. He was doing what he knew to do, because that was the only kind of life that he, himself, had ever known. All that it accomplished, I suppose, was that he had been humiliated, and made to feel less of a man than he already felt. That to him, I know, was devastating, because regardless of anything, and as strange as it sounds, Daddy was a proud man. He would never accept anything from anyone, unless he could give something in return. As I said before, he was only doing what he knew to do.

Remembering the pain that I had felt as a child, I could feel nothing but pity, and compassion, for the panelists on the television talk show. And for the audience, as well. I wondered if they recognized what was being played out before them. I wondered if they -- any of them --realized that until the cycle is broken, ignorance breeds ignorance.

And it hurts. It hurts me still.