What do you do when people spout racist drivel?/comments;rather long

[aaoconnor2002 <aaoconnor2002@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com

Anna wrote: 
> I decided to pop in to give you a couple of thoughts; one point of 
> view, is that of a loving daughter of a very bigoted, imigrant, 
much 
> older, father.  

Me:

I am also the loving daughter of a much older father.  My dad was a 
native of the DEEP American south, born in the very early 1900's.  
Was he bigoted?  Yes, he could be.  Did he enjoy ethnic jokes?  He 
sure did.  Would he tell them in front of someone from the particular 
group the joke was aimed at?  Definitely not.  Was he a racist?  By 
definition probably yes.  He had a real issue with racially mixed 
couples but when it came to work if you gave a good days work you got 
a good days pay.  The same for everyone no matter what color.

When it was time for my 16th birthday party I wanted to invite a 
friend from school who happened to be black.  My mother was unsure 
because she didn't know what my father would say.  I told Mom that if 
I couldn't invite who I wanted then I didn't want a party at all.  
Well the party went just fine.  In fact when everybody was going home 
my dad insisted on driving my friend home because otherwise she would 
have had to walk through a very bad part of town.

I think the most telling thing about my dad, and the thing that makes 
any of my story relevant to the topic, is something that he said to 
my sister while they were watching television one day.  They were 
watching a documentary on the civil rights movement.  Several 
pictures were shown of lynchings from the 1920's.  My sister said 
something about how terrible it was what people could do to another 
human being.  Dad said there was one thing that was just as bad and 
that that was to stand there and not do anything about it.  

I'm sure it's because of his influence that my sister and I are very 
vocal.  He came a long way from where he started and I think about 
him when I read in Harry Potter that it's not what we are born that 
is important but what we become.

Audrey