A word about southeastern Idaho, where schoolkids chant "Assassinate Obama"
By David Neiwert Thursday Nov 13, 2008 10:00amExcuse me a moment while I go throw up (no offense to David Edwards and Muriel Kane at Raw Story):
Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting "assassinate Obama on the school bus.
Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.
"They just hadn't heard anything like this before," Whoolery stated. "I think the thing that struck us was just like, 'Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'"
Whoolery, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, is not an Obama supporter, but he was shocked that any public official would be threatened in that way. "I don't think that the majority of people in Rexburg have extreme ideas like that, but we were just surprised that it would go that far," Whoolery told KIKD.
The Madison County School District has sent out an email saying that students are to be told this sort of behavior is unacceptable.
OK. I grew up in southeastern Idaho -- Idaho Falls, to be exact, about 30 miles south of Rexburg. I've spent a fair amount of time in Madison County; it was where one of my more traumatic experiences as a young adult occurred. So I can talk a little about why this kind of thing might happen there.
This particular corner of the country, as the Raw Story piece notes, is heavily Mormon. Roughly 90 percent of the population there is LDS. And because of that, there is a virulent and entrenched strain of John Bircherite extremism in the body politic. That in turn has helped produce a long-running parade of right-wing extremists (particularly tax protesters and "constitutionalists") who have made Madison County their home.
At the same time, it is by nearly all outward appearances a classic slice of American heartland. My great-aunt and -uncle, both non-Mormons, lived most of their lives there and were not just perfectly comfortable, thoroughly accepted members of the community, but they loved it. There is a decency and integrity to the town and that transcends political considerations.
So having their schoolkids chant "assassinate Obama" must have shocked their sensibilities deeply, which is why school officials and parents made a point of standing up against it.
At the same time, it's not terribly surprising. And not just because there is such a deep streak of ultra-right thinking that runs through this community -- but also because the campaign just finished by Republicans was so rife with rabble-rousing rhetoric that it is, frankly, a wonder this hasn't happened more often, and in more places than just southeastern Idaho.
In fact, it very likely -- indeed, almost certainly -- has. And it's to the credit of Rexburg's conservative Mormons that they drew attention to it. Perhaps they will stop and take a good hard look at the kind of hate they've been spewing before their children.
If only other Republicans in the rest of the heartland would do the same.
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Religion poisons everything.
Please elaborate.
Nuke 'em!
I gave you time to explain your bizarre word association. Don't be so quick to associate "black" with something very negative...maybe like these children(due to your upbringing), you can't help yourself.
Like children are the new cigarettes (or smokers in restaurants).
... seriously, WTF?
"A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
This is the key quote from J.C. that I was raised to believe, along with all the other things he said and did.
The problem, as I see it, is that "Christians" like Sarah Palin, Rev. Hagee, Pat Robertson, and all the other right-wing fundamentalist wackos who teach their children to hate homosexuals, to ignore the reality of human sexuality in modern times (thus Sarah Palin herself rushed into a "shotgun" marriage and her daughter and many "Evangelical" Christian teenage girls getting pregnant by the miracle!!! of abstinence only sex education), to be overt or covert racists, to be blatant hypocrites (thus all the Holier-Than-Thou famous past preachers getting caught literally with their pants down in hotel rooms with hookers) and on and on.
I don't care if it's Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden ("Catholic"), Sarah Palin or any other self-professed "Christians". If they are not witnessing to John 13:34-35, IMHO they are NOT Christians at all, but merely poseurs using Jesus' name for political gain.
All of the above have supported the indiscriminate killing and torture of other human beings (Iraq), not to mention that they have all sworn on the Bible to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic" and as far as I can see they have NOT.
So, please, BennyP @10:05, don't paint all Christians with too broad a brush. There are those of us who try to be true disciples of J.C. every moment of our lives, and those who are full of not the Lord, but themselves.
Say "Amen!"
Thank you!!
(P.S. And I am a FIRM believer in the separation of church and state. Which is why I'm Pro-choice. It is not for me to dictate to others what to do with their bodies etc.)
Whom would Jesus bomb?
your comment makes me want to reconsider Christianity. And here, I was painting all Christians as being intolerant, judgemental ass-holes, in a similar way in which the parents of these chanting kids might be viewing Barrack Obama and all people of color.
Thanks and I say "Amen"
If I lived in this area, I would move. This has gone on long enough. These people better wake up. In a couple of decades, THEY will be the minority. They better get used to it.
Your kids are what YOU make them.
Absolutely pathetic.
But many of them will grow up to realize that their parents were ugly wrong, and that's when they'll take a second look and realize they don't want to be like them.
Ever notice, how young kids of all races can play together just fine.
When they get a little older, and able to better grasp abstract ideas...
That's when they start showing, or acting out what they've learned from their relatives...it would seem, in this case, that maybe these kids may have been either coached to chant this shit...or they spontaneously started it...either way...not good.
Ask childre "why" and the only answer/reason they can come up with is "because".
I was taught by my parents to do just the opposite.
...and while they didn't like it when I dated outside my race...that was only because we lived in a small NC town, where everyone knew the local klan grandwizard (or whatever they call themselves) by name.
They feared for my safety, and rightly so.
We received death threats, I got almost daily beatings from the racist white kids.
And some skinheads cornered my sisters in a mall elevator, and really scared the shit out of them.
That was before I had ever heard of skinheads. But they were bald, with tattoos and the suspenders, the boots, the whole get-up.
and the weird thing is...I actually look forward to going back there to visit...
Despite all the scary shit that happened, I have more good memories, than bad ones.
The town has changed, become more of a suburb of Charlotte, and is more tolerant of people like me.
It has lost it's racist redneck mentality for the most part.
And that is a good thing!
That just kinda came out on it's own.
ABSOLUTELY.
I was fortunate enough to have fairly liberal parents, a good public school education, and just enough "good" religion (love, respect for fellow man, regardless of skin color, etc) to turn out OK, I guess.
I can easily see how the opposite--racist, ignorant parents, home-schooling without oversight/social checks, and extreme, fanatical religious brainwashing--could churn out tomorrows hate groups.
I don't know the specifics of these kids, but I doubt they've had similar upbringings to mine or those of many here.
Children are a reflection of their parents and their upbringing.
I hope the people of that town are proud.
But sometimes I think it depends on the level of haterd. My father is a bigot. But I was raised in a multicultual area. Fortunity, it didn't rub off on me.
The multiculturalism?
Excuse me a moment while I go throw up (no offense to David Edwards and Muriel Kane at Raw Story):
Why, did you puke on their shoes?
... anything of value or substance to this message board?
In care you're wondering, you're not funny.
The kids don't know what the word means. But it came from somewhere.
I doubt, but I could be wrong, that they heard the comment in school, and if they did...it was probably from a classmate. So...ultimately it came out of a home...and obviously it came out in the context that it was repeated.
These are seven and eight year olds. They're like little parrots.
And they're all crackers too.
Does that mean they have to eat themselves?
the fact that a memo had to be sent to school staff to instruct them to tell students this is "unacceptable". I can't understand how a bus driver, teacher or other staff wouldn't have put a stop to this the first time they heard even one child utter the phrase.
I'm in a pretty red corner of a blue state and work for a school district in a very conservative, very small, almost 100% white town. This incident would have never been allowed to go that far. Ever.
It's entirely possible the kids didn't really know what they were saying. Yes, they probably got it from somewhere, the hushed tones and sideways glace giving them the idea it was something dirty, and as kids, said it to be mischievous. It doesn't mean you jump from that to condemning the whole town, without more evidence.
Though in any case, doesn't this mean the Secret Service is gonna descend on the area en masse, now? You can't even joke about such a thing, so a whole school bus full of kids chanting it, that's going to be a lot of official activity.
Right. Just kids being kids. Leave 'em alone.
"Assassinate Obama" does not translate to 'being mischievous.' Not by any measure.
And when I was raised, one of the lessons imparted was that each of us represents our school, our family, and our community. So, as far as looking askance at the whole town, when you get a bus full of kids chanting the above, you know it didn't just happen in a vacuum.
Where I grew up, the N word was used and also the word Queer (which we thought meant strange). Kids not know what the N word meant (having only Native Americans as minorities in the community) called one another that, because it sounded funny. They also called one another Queer, thinking it meant weird or strange.
The first time I used the word Queer, while fighting with my brother, my otherwise tolerant and loving Grandmother washed my mouth out with soap.
The first time I heard the N word on television (by a Southerner on the news during the 60's) my Grandmother explained it was the worst word there was.
These things are learned at home. They are either reinforced or quashed at home.
The story above is not just "kids being kids". It is a story of adults being intolerant racists and unrepentently passing that on to their children.
my mean gramma told me not to use the word 'queer' too. When I asked why I clearly remember her saying "Because they're not very nice people." I can see and hear her saying it.
Glad I knew she was mean and full of shit. The little pearl of
wisdomshite never to hold, thank fucking god.The reason I was told was that it was an insult directed at certain people, since I was too young to understand what homosexuality meant.
We definitely didn't have the same Grandmother. It was the only time she ever reprimanded me. She was the most wonderful person I ever knew.
I had a lovely one too, but Dad's mom was horrid. She said that in front of my mom whose favourite cousin was queer who lived in SF (an interior decorator, no less) at that time.
It must have killed my mom to hear her m-i-l speak that way. I don't recall, she may have tried to correct it, while trying not to fuss. That old hag was no one you'd want to cross.
"differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal"
You kids had it right the first time.
One of the things that was clearly going on here was that the majority kids were harassing the kids in the minority (some of the chants added kids' names). I can tell you that this is a constant for non-Mormon kids in these communities, as well as those who are "out" for other reasons, i.e., politics.
It had a lot to do with why I fled southeastern Idaho upon graduation; I returned for a two-year stint at the Blackfoot paper in '80-'82, but was relieved to be leaving when I finally did. Have only gone back for high-school reunions.
I grew up in Southern Alberta, Canada where LDS are the majority and they are by and large an intolerant and bigoted bunch, despite their squeaky clean image.
Kids on a school bus chanting "assassinate Obama"? Not knowing what you're saying is hardly an excuse, especially in our climate. Second and third graders chanting hatred is very wrong and speaks volumes of their upbringing.
But I'm being too tough on the poor kiddies huh, spinn?
Yes, I'd say you are. I seriously doubt that a schoolbus of kids would be knowingly calling for the death of the president-elect. If I am wrong, then yes, it's a terribe, nasty thing. I just can't believe it's true, and neither should anyone reading this article as presented, because it doesn't have enough detail to say so.
Is it wrong? Yes. Is there some source of hatred in that town that caused this event to happen? Yes. But from the scant info people have in this article, people were skipping right to "THAT TOWN IS HORRIBLE" kind of conclusions, and that's wrong, as well.
Religion = hatred and violence. Always has, always will.
Amen to that
Well, unequal treatment at the very least. This can be taken to the extremes of hatred and violence.
I'm a hard core atheist, have been since I was around 12. But I'm sorry religion does not just equal hate and violence. Its true religion often leads to hate and violence and I think the world will be a better place when eventually we have no religion. But many decent, beautiful, loving, and even sexy people can be religious. Have you ever been to cathedrals in Europe? Have you listened to religious music by Bach, Brahms, and Mozart? Have you ever seen what Micelangelo painted on the Sisteen chapel? Religion also can inspire and motivate people to do beautiful, self sacrificing, creative things. When you say simplistic things such as "Religion = hatred and violence" you demonstrate the same narrow minded fundamentalism that is the hallmark of the worst in religion.
this is a family values issue. Don't you believe in family values.
I dunno, I never tried to buy one.
... how receptive and observant our children truly are. It's not just what we teach them in school and at home, it's what they observe when we aren't giving any particular thought to the lesson plan.
This must be a mutant strain of Mormons. Most Mormons I know (from CA, NV and UT) would never teach this to their children. They wouldn't even think of it.
This sounds more gun toting white-trash redneck than Mormon. Just my opinion.
Mormons have vastly differing private faces compared to their public faces. I'm not just trying to pick on Mormons. Many religious folk are like this.
Any of that 'virtuous' stuff's gotta be pretty well buried, if the school board had to circulate a memo reminding ADULTS that such behavior was "unacceptable."
I sure am glad I'll never have to set foot in such a 'virtuous' place...
The school board knew where this shit was flowing from. That's why they wrote to parents. It wasn't simply an FYI notification.
I don't think that the kids not knowing what they were saying is any excuse to have let it transgress into a chant. The bus driver should be held accountable for letting them get that far. Its not like kids just start chanting.
When I was a kindergartner I rode a bus with kids of all ages and the big kids liked to tease me. They weren't mean about it though and I never realized I was being teased. They were sweet. But one kid told me to flip off the bus driver even showing me how to hold my fingers. I did and got thrown off the bus for a week.
Times they are a changin.
The fault rests with the parents.
The bus driver didn't stop it that makes him/her part of it. The parents instigated it for sure but someone should have nipped it in the bud before it became an issue. And that person is the bus driver.
I would only excuse the driver if this is the kind of community where parents have 'you can't talk to my kid that way'-itis.
Well like the old saying: 'tisbetter to ask forgiveness than permission'
"It's sometimes easier to ask forgiveness than permission," an old landscaper's axiom.
"May I take out that horrifically ugly bush, please?"
"No"
Alternate ending:
"Sorry, that bush was so ugly, I assumed that, given your excellent taste, you'd have wanted it removed."
"Huh? Wha? Ummm OK I guess. It DOES look better now!"
Well look at that hideous shrub we've been stuck with in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Thanks Miss Kitty - I actually looked it up before I used it on Google but it didn't give me the info I was looking for. I thought it was easier too, but Google disagreed with me. Huh. You're a regular Alan Titchmarsh. :)
Alan knows his stuff, as do I :)
Have you ever been on a school bus? It is the drivers job (poorly paid job) to drive the children to and from school. Had he stopped the bus, or kicked children off the bus, there would be irrate parents, claiming their children had been endangered.
The driver is is a no-win situation.
Since when is it a bus driver's job to teach morality to his passengers.
Grow up! Get real! Give me a break!
It is always someone else's fault. For Fu** Sake! What ever happened to personal responsibility or have you never heard of that.
Blaming the bus driver is like blaming Ronald McDonald when you get a bad hamburger.
well if Ronald McDonald gave me the burger than yes I would blame him if it were bad.
If I saw someone I was responsible for doing something reprehensible than I would stop it.
By your logic that bus driver isn't responsible for a damn thing on that bus just the bus. But as a frigging human being its that drivers responsibility to stop a fukking social tragedy. So if the kids were beating another the bus driver wouldn't have a responsibility to stop that either?
Why don't you grow some social consciousness?
It is a waste of time responding to you. I'm outta here.
Amalink made a valid point.
Why is it wasting your time to respond?
This ain't like you...at least not that I've ever noticed.
Maybe I'm confusing you for another poster, but you usually have intelligent stuff to say.
Well, I'm with CMINCA. Saying "If I saw someone I was responsible for doing something reprehensible than I would stop it" doesn't recognize the situation that anyone who is unfortunate enough to have to drive a bus for a living is in. Although I don't quite like the Ronald McDonald analogy (I think anyone working for McDonalds is a bit guilty but that's another story).
Especially since that's the only kind you'll ever get there.
You and I rarely disagree...
But when I rode the bus...it was also the bus drivers job to maintain order while in charge of the kids.
Our bus driver, Ms. Hazel stopped the bus MANY a time, to straighten our little asses out.
Tellin kids to sit down and shut up ain't teaching morality...it's just what bus drivers have to do sometimes.
Who knows...for all we know, the bus driver in question, may have been the instigator of all this BS...
and you can bet your sweet arse that if shit like that broke out on one of my buses, the bus would have pulled over, and the driver would have straightened it out. And if that had not been possible, heads would have rolled at school this next day, parents would have to leave work for conferences. Not pleasant.
And I do remember after a couple of kids ganged up on my best friend Katie and called her a 'chink' in 4th grade. Katie went home early, and we all got our arses reamed for it, whether we participated or not.
The ones who did it didn't really know what it was they were doing (Her white 'boyfriend' started it) but EVERYONE got it afterward.
You are right that bus drivers have hard jobs and are not paid shit. It is, however, their job to keep the order on that bus. They can and do pull over (safely), stop the bus and do whatever they are allowed to do legally when there is a disciplinary situation. It is the district's job to back up that driver when they have done their job according to school policy and parents choose to complain for one reason or another.
You are also right when you said "Since when is it a bus driver's job to teach morality to his passengers". It is the job of the parents (who in this case obviously are asleep at the wheel). But... since Columbine every school district in this country has policies and rules concerning 'threatening' language and behaviors. Consequences are very heavy and it doesn't matter who that student(s) is talking about; the point of these rules is to teach students that it is not acceptable to bully another in any way. The bus driver in Idaho clearly was choosing how to apply that district's anti-bullying rules and didn't do his/her job.
In reality teachers and school staff in this country HAVE to teach morality. In most cases we're doing most of the parenting. You'd be surprised how much of our time is spent on stuff like this. Funny how no one warned me about this one when I was spending all my time and effort in college getting degrees that enabled me to ... TEACH.
Methinks a visit from the Secret Service is in order.
It's against the law to threaten the life of the President-Elect, even if you don't mean it. Even if it's a bunch of kids chanting something they heard from adults, the bus driver should be questioned by the Service if nothing more than to scare them straight.
So typical how the interviewer feels the need to ask if the outrage would extend to chants of "assassinate McSame" - AS IF there needs to be some kind of parity in order for people to understand how unbelievably upsetting that kind of language is! This is another example why we have to stick a fork in the Repug party. They bring out the worst in humanity and COUNT on it to maintain their boney grip around the neck of power. You KNOW those children came from households that hang on the words of people like McSame and Palin who STILL sit there after their ass-whooping and question Obama's "associations." Those kid's parents should all get a visit from the Secret Service. Isn't threatening the life of a President a crime? The REPUG PARTY is merely an organized crime family who exploit the lack of intelligence, racism, homophobia and cowardice of their supporters. They MUST go if our "We The People" are to create a more perfect Union!
They know what vulgarities are and they know what Assassinate means.
This isn't freedom of speech. Its a Federal Offense to threaten the President. Toss 'em in prison. End of story.
A little harsh maybe???
I think the kids DEFINITELY need to be interviewed by whatever authority handles such things, in order to find out who got these kids saying that crap.
But puttin 7 and 8 y/o's in prison is not an option.
would scare the cowboy shit out of these kids and it would be a good thing. Then once the black suit/shiny sunglasses/earpiece team gave them a strong talking to about why saying things like that, even if it was a joke, is wrong, the teachers could tell them how sad they would feel if someone was singing about killing their parents, grandparents or siblings. Kids understand better if you put things in that perspective. But a visit from the security team would be no bad thing.
And then. Show them the film of Kennedy's assassination to drive home the point of what that word really means and how bad it was for them to be chanting such bullshit.
We watched that JFK documentary in school, the whole school went in shifts to watch it in the auditorium...that scene where he gets hit..it still gives me a sick feeling when I think about it.
really. I was 10 but I remember.
send the SS in there to talk sense into these little shitheads' PARENTS.
Give the kids a thrill, and watch dad's nut's shrink into his torso as the secret Service gives the family abode a thorough going over.
The kids are probably like their patron saints
Beavis & Butthead
Heh...heh...heh...he said ass...
and advocate killing it, because it upsets their 'Book of Mormon' outlook, and they obviously do not follow the teachings of the Christ, for He was of Love and Respect for fellow humans, regardless of their origins. Mormons HATE BLACK PEOPLE. They are considered inferior in God's eyes, according to their teachings. They'll say that's not so anymore, but they are liars. The fact that it was so at one time, and in my lifetime, is a total cred destroyer. Jesus didn't say, in the 60s or 70s "OK. Blacks are cool now, Mormons." That was His teaching all along. Check out the Parable of the Good Samaritan story, Mormons. It's been in the real bible since the New Testament was written. Tell me why the Mormons don't have to extend help to those with whom they do not see eye to eye.
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
As a person whose family helped found the LDS (chased out of Studham Beds. England for being Nutted Up) and build infrastructure in Utah and Wyoming in from about 1865 to the 1950s, and still having lost modern day members to this cult, I know exactly what it is I'm speaking of.
In other words, this is a preemptive STFU strike on any arsehole Mormon apologists.
How can one love their neighbor as themself, when so many churches frown on self-love?
Get a hold of yourself!
Such activity will make ya go blind!!
That would explain my optometryst's prescription for my glasses.
Also, I have hairy palms.
Just sayin...
the friction take care of the hairy palms? just sayin'
Or are we talking about plants?? They did have palm trees in Jesus' time.
Hey guys, get a grip on it will you! Now, where did I put my glasses.....
Onan should be excised from the OT.
But if humans weren't as stupid as turkeys in a downpour, we wouldn't be drowning in this shit.
The fact that people literally take [the convenient] parts of the bible as gospel, a 2000 to what -- 5000 year old text, as though nothing has changed in that time (like the 2nd Amendment was written with Uzis in mind) totally mystifies me.
Anyone still putting there bleeding females in a separate tent these days? Really? No one? So whats wrong with spilling seed? Back when Onan was beating his meat, they needed all the sperm they could get -- there weren't that many people. WE have more than enough, and churches, if they LOVED the world and their fellow humans, and weren't so intent upon increasing their numbers would know this, and would advocate masturbatory practices.
But churches are selfish and venal. And Proud. Proud of their numbers.
I'm into onanistic proclivities due to concupiscence inactivity.
...a little thing a bit too far?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Tent
These kids learned those words from adults as all children learn. Yes most adults don't wont the public to know the truth but as kids do they repeat what they have heard. Each time a child uses a bad word the parent has said that word. To be surpised is a lie these comments were said around the kids and they just repeated them.
Learn from the past. My dad had a hate list,but my mom would not let him pass it on to us kids. Thanks mom.
I'm Asian. I was visiting a friend in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Went to the grocery store. Little old lady came up to me and asked me if she could touch me,
"cause she's never seen one of me before, 'cept on teevee".
Then she poked me with a finger a couple times.
She wasn't embarrassed at all by her ridiculousness. The entitlement, the superiority complex, that creates this insular ethnocentric reality is real and has gone unchallenged in some pockets of America for long enough!
People did that to my son in India. It thought it was strange, but endearing in a way. He knew they meant no harm.
However, someone from America and this old, I'm sure she was being demeaning and insulting.
Sorry about that. Idiot Americans.
When I was a body-builder people wanted to feel my biceps
Although I'm sure some of the ladies would be offended if I reciprocated in kind upon their mammaries.
are adipose tissue and cannot be "built" ( at least not without some sort of "implant"). But I applaud you for holding yourself back... :)
But I know lots of people that think nothing of wanting to touch a pregnant lady's belly.
my brother had a 'fro growing up. He was in the Children's hospital and a black kid was in the bed next to his.
The other kid's 4 and 5 yo siblings kept looking into the curtained area where we were, and we heard one of the kids say "Mamma mamma there's a white boy in there and his hair..."
"Hush up! That's rude" "but no mamma really -- " My dad started laughing and pulled the curtain back to reveal my pallid brother, and the biggest picked out fro on a white boy in 1970 (his hair went of the edges of the school pic).
"Wanna touch it? It's OK." Both the little boy and little girl carefully touched it, then pushed their little fingers into his hair.
"It feels just like Joe's!"
The kids' parents were embarrassed and apologetic, my brother was out of his gourd on morphine, and the rest of us laughed, telling the parents it was OK.
What none of us knew then but I've found out since is that black people often have white people wanting to touch their hair. :)
thanks for sharing that. When I used to wear my hair braided, white people would touch it all the time and play with it. I love a good "white man afro."
Anywho, my son is mixed race, and until he was 4, he had beautiful big springy hair. Now, he was born and raised in Glasgow until we moved this year, and most of the little white Scottish children in his nursery class had never seen afro hair before. They used to play with his hair constantly. They would marvel that it was so springy and they would tell their parents to touch our little one's "bouncy hair" because it was so cool. It was really cute, because they never, ever bothered with the colour of his skin, only that his hair was different. My son now goes to a school with so many kids of different nationalities it's unreal. His best friend this week is a Bulgarian immigrant; a couple of weeks ago it was a British Bangladeshi girl, another time it was a Somali or West Indian kid. The only difference they make is that they have cockney accents and he has a strong Scots one. They all get along.
I agree about the endearing strangeness of such an act. She did not offend me, personally, because there was no animosity. I believe it was innocent.
Your son's and my stories are benign versions of the 'we know not what we do' category of kids chanting something that they may or may not understand. These everyday stories accent how far we have to go to sincerely recognize the diversity of humanity. I'm oddly comforted that these important issues are finally being more openly discussed. Hopefully it's not too late for some of these school bus kids to learn just how evil it is to chant what they chanted.
Thanks for your story.
The US interned many Japanese Americans in Idaho, because it's such a shit hole. You know she meant she'd only see you lot on tv since WWII.
Incredible.
Actually, the Minidoka camp was in south-central Idaho, about a three-hour drive from Idaho Falls. No one in that part of the state saw Japanese internees during the war unless they hired them for sugar-beet work (which did occur).
I think it's somewhat credible that she would actually have believed this, though not entirely. We had Asian kids in our schools when I lived there (our valedictorian was Japanese American), and there were at least some nonwhite faces around town last time I visited. OTOH, if she lived out in the farmlands, well, it's not only plausible but likely.
And FWIW, I very much look forward to spending time with my family at our cabin in Stanley Basin every summer and winter -- not exactly a shithole. Check out the largest wilderness in the Lower 48 just to the north -- absolutely pristine.
The Minidoka sagelands, I agree, are a shithole. But Idaho on the whole is astonishingly beautiful.
and am remarkably poorly travelled in the PNW. I've never went on a Coors run to Post