This is just a vent so I don't bother my three facebook friends with it. Nothing really to see here.
Reading "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson. Its an account of a erroneously / wrongly convicted murderer in Alabama. (I think, just starting the book and I assume that's the whole point of it) I lived in Alabama from birth until I joined the military in 1991. Early in the book, the author brought up the fact that Alabama was the last state in the nation to "legalize" interracial marriage in 2000 (although the federal government legalized it about 3 decades earlier, making Alabama's state law irrelevant). The kicker to me is that 40% of the people that voted in the 2000 ballot on that particular issue voted in favor of maintaining the Alabama law as it (i.e. keeping interracial marriage 'illegal').
Its absolutely unfathomable to me that in the year 2000, 40% of voters in any state in our nation would vote in favor of keeping interracial marriage illegal. Full disclosure, I am Caucasian and my father-in-law is black (not my wife's biological father, but we all call him dad anyways). Our holiday meals are typically large affairs with a whole lot of people from a whole lot of ethnicity's. I realized after I left Alabama how 'backwards' a lot of the people there are (in my own biased opinion); however I actually didn't believe the author when he presented the fact because I couldn't believe the data point could possibly be true in today's world. I had to hit ol' Wikipedia to verify / refute the claim. It was in fact true.
My wife and I have both drawn a huge X over the south as places where we might move in the future (long prior to my reading of this book) mainly due to the south's political leanings and prevailing mentality. It is disappointing to me to know that regardless of how much we talk about progress and equality, we are still nowhere near that as a nation.
Rant over. Surprised if anyone makes it this far.
Reading "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson. Its an account of a erroneously / wrongly convicted murderer in Alabama. (I think, just starting the book and I assume that's the whole point of it) I lived in Alabama from birth until I joined the military in 1991. Early in the book, the author brought up the fact that Alabama was the last state in the nation to "legalize" interracial marriage in 2000 (although the federal government legalized it about 3 decades earlier, making Alabama's state law irrelevant). The kicker to me is that 40% of the people that voted in the 2000 ballot on that particular issue voted in favor of maintaining the Alabama law as it (i.e. keeping interracial marriage 'illegal').
Its absolutely unfathomable to me that in the year 2000, 40% of voters in any state in our nation would vote in favor of keeping interracial marriage illegal. Full disclosure, I am Caucasian and my father-in-law is black (not my wife's biological father, but we all call him dad anyways). Our holiday meals are typically large affairs with a whole lot of people from a whole lot of ethnicity's. I realized after I left Alabama how 'backwards' a lot of the people there are (in my own biased opinion); however I actually didn't believe the author when he presented the fact because I couldn't believe the data point could possibly be true in today's world. I had to hit ol' Wikipedia to verify / refute the claim. It was in fact true.
My wife and I have both drawn a huge X over the south as places where we might move in the future (long prior to my reading of this book) mainly due to the south's political leanings and prevailing mentality. It is disappointing to me to know that regardless of how much we talk about progress and equality, we are still nowhere near that as a nation.
Rant over. Surprised if anyone makes it this far.