Southern Hospitality

This weekend I went to Tennessee for a Rugby tournament.  A friend/teammate of mine went into the store to get our water and our pre-game necessities.  After finding the water and said necessities, he went to the counter to pay.  A short conversation followed.  I don’t remember the exact words but the words “You speak well for a colored person” were mentioned.  My initial feeling was that I was in the 1940s or 1960s.  Someone had turned back the clock on race relations.  I didn’t know that that kind of ignorance still existed in society, even one with the negative reputation of the American South.  The conversation didn’t go over well, needless to say, but it was resolved with little incident.  The interesting part of the conversation was that the person working the cash register was sincerely sorry, as if the reaction by my friend was out of the ordinary, or as if he was ACTUALLY impressed that my friend was able to talk intelligently.

My question from this is as follows:  Where do these perceptions of ignorance of black people still come from?  I know that they still exist, but who actually teaches them?  It’s a sad situation to be sure.  If the general population still harbors racist sentiments, then how can the society move forward?  All the legislation that could be passed won’t mean anything if the minds of the people don’t change.

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