Life After Forty! Is there life out there?

There’s been a lot of controversy about the song by Jason Aldean, “Try That in a Small Town”. I don’t really have a dog in that race because I don’t listen to country music nor do I intend to. I am not really sure what the motive was behind the song, but I do see where it can be offensive.

But what I want to talk about is my version of “What You See in a Small Town”. This is what you see in a small town, especially in a southern state. You see hypocrisy. You see racism. Yes, racism. There is racism here, racism there, and racism everywhere. And racism comes from all directions and from all different people. The division from racism and prejudice can be seen definitely in the churches, in the schools, and in the country club. You see, I have lived here most of my life and we have yet to come a long way since the early days of our dark history.

Let’s start with the churches. Most of the biggest baptist churches are mostly white. Last I heard there was ONE black couple that goes to the biggest baptist church in our little town. I am not even sure they are not bi-racial. I would like to say that bi-racial families are accepted, but I am not quite sure. Our town, as with most southern towns, has a very dark history when it comes to race relations. I believe many (not all) speak with both sides of their mouths.

They speak acceptance from one side, but yet their own children have specialized classes in which most of them are in the same classrooms at school. They get away with it by what they call “teacher requests”. This means, that parents can choose their child’s teacher. Now, if you see the demographics of this small town, it is almost 50/50 (white and African-American), with maybe 2% being Asian or other. The teacher request issue causes some classrooms to be about 80/20. Most of the students in these mostly white classrooms in a PUBLIC school comes from the baptist churches in the town I live in. Hmm… I don’t think that is very Christian like.

This is what bothers me about this situation. There is so much preaching on the Gospel, but yet this particular group of “Christians” don’t really want their children to experience diversity. It’s sad, really.

This is something else you will see in a small town. You’ll see this in every town, but it is very prevalent in a small town. You will see cliques. The cliques are the groups of country club and private school kids. And a lot of these people in these cliques go to (drum roll please)…the big baptist churches!!! Wow! Say it ain’t so! Now, I am not saying that all those who are a part of those groups are racist, but I would be willing to bet a lot of them are. And most people don’t see anything wrong with it!! The private school just let minorities in their schools. This has been in just the last decade. The classes are still separated by social class. The “I am better than everyone crowd” has classes together. And the “my parents work themselves to death to send me here” crowd still are not accepted in some of the social circles in this private school. I have a relative that went because her father sent her there. She begged her father to let her go to public school because she was in the latter crowd. She was made fun of because she had Wal-Mart clothes . I never understood why she went to the private school. Her parents actually worked themselves to the bone to send her. Her dad finally let her go to public school. At least she got a little bit of diversity. Personally, I think the private and the public school in my little town needs a lot of work.

You see, when I was growing up in this small town, the classrooms were very diverse. We had about the same amount of African-American students in the classroom as whites. Our generation was starting to make real changes. But it all stopped when teacher requests came in. Now, we are all more segregated than ever.

The churches haven’t changed either. From what I see, it is the same ol’, same ol’. There are small pockets in the body of Christ that are working for reconciliation. But not enough. I still say there are church folks who say they want change, but don’t really mean it.

In most of these mainly white churches, you won’t see the homeless, the down trodden, the hungry, or the desperate. It’s mainly the smaller churches that actually take on that role. This is where the cliques really come in. As long as it is not in their backyard, they could care less. There may a few pockets of people connected to those who help the needy, but there’s not enough. So, basically it’s socio-economic and racial groups that flock together. I know it’s everywhere, but it affects a lot here. It affects me. I have social anxiety because of living here. I know what people think of me. You see, I grew up poor. I am part of the group of people considered “trash”. I know how people look at me. I will never be accepted and that’s okay. I don’t want to be accepted. I just want people to be accepting of others. The sad part in all of this is that I know people that won’t step foot in these churches or in these homes because it is very evident that all people are not accepted into their fold.

This is what you will see in this small town. I wish I could say “we have come a long way, baby” but I honestly can’t. I believe there could have been a lot of change had segregation not been reintroduced in the classrooms and remained in the church. There could have been a lot more change if the churches had changed. But they haven’t. It’s been the same for decades now. I pray that real change will come. Because if the people who are supposed to represent Jesus can’t reconcile in their hearts that all mankind is created equal and are in need of a Savior, what hope can we have in this small town?