Thread by @herandrews

A female scholar interviewed a bunch of senior citizens in Greensboro, NC, about their memories of integration and white flight. Their testimony is interesting, even if the author adds on a lot of nonsense about their “white privilege” and “victimhood narratives.”

Most interviewees had children in school when busing came in. “Our son quit takin’ his lunch because they would steal his lunch or his lunch money, so he just didn't eat.” “When my daughter went there . . . she was afraid to go to the bathroom, to the point that we had to take her to a urologist.” “He would have our son get down and lick his shoes and he would say, ‘Your people have slaved my people, now I'm gonna slave you.’”

A school administrator told one parent: “Mack, I think if you can afford it you would be smart to send [your daughter] to private school . . . because she has too much visibility,” i.e., she is blonde.

“We were in the car and our son said, ‘Those black kids can get by with anything and they are never punished’ … My husband pulled the car over and said, "Have you ever learned any history in school? ... Do you know anything about how blacks have been mistreated all their lives, and they kind of deserve to misbehave every once in a while’ … I never heard our kids complain again about that sort of thing.”

“Because of what our children were experiencing, we have children that are very prejudiced, much more than I would say I ever was, much to my sorrow. And they as adults would say, ‘Mom, you had no idea what it was like.’ And that’s very hard for me, because I thought we were doing it for the right reasons.” The author adds: “Her sense of disappointment and sadness for her own children, decades later, is palpable.”

“There’s one of ours I would like to have sent to private school, but I couldn’t do it and leave the other [children] in the system, so I didn’t do it.” Author adds: “Ellie spoke about how her most gifted child may have suffered irreparably from her decision not to send him to private school.”