A Small Thread in a Large Blanket

It seems as though once battles end, somewhere in the world they are still raging. Since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, there has still been tension sprinkled throughout small southern towns in America, where blacks and whites clash with each other everyday. We don’t hear about it much, but every once in a while people will come upon a news article about a shooting, riot, hanging, or murder that was sparked because of racial tension, and usually these things happen in rural southern towns, where these issues still affect people on a daily basis. It seems as though in some towns, the Union and the Rebels still live on, and people are choosing sides. Although they aren’t known as the rebels anymore, they have chosen other groups such as the Klan, the Aryan race, and skinheads.

In, “Confederates in the Attic” Tony Horwitz visits Guthrie, where racial tension has hit an all time high. In the town of Guthrie, a white man was gunned down by a group of black teenagers, and the cause is still being disputed. Many believe that it was because of a Confederate flag hanging from the back of his pickup, or because of racial slurs, but because of the incident, citizens of the town have divided once again and are having a racial war with each other. From the white stand-point, people are angry because they believe that black community is trying to take hold of the town, with no regard for its “southern heritage” that actually doesn’t really exist. The problem with these incidents is that something small can blow up, the cause of the incident is usually forgotten, and the story is manipulated to start a racial war such as this.

After the end of any war, one side is victorious, while the other is defeated and usually brought down. In the Civil War, the North succeeded and the South was put in ruins, which left many rich people with almost nothing. Because of this defeat, the southerners felt anger still towards the North, as well as black people. There seems to be a trend, that most wars are started because one side feels as though another race, religion, or other group is bringing them down in some way, such as the Nazis blaming the Jews. In this modern day racial war, the white community in Guthrie, as well as the rest of the South, reports that the African Americans are taking their jobs, infiltrating their schools, and being more successful overall. This issue much relates to the conflict about South Americans illegally crossing into the United States. By blaming another side, the people feel as though their problems aren’t their fault, but really are the faults of these other people. In reality, they can only blame themselves for their poverty and bad educations.

From the stand-point of the African Americans, they are fed up with living in a community of prejudice and racism. Ever since the days of slavery, African Americans have endured racism, prejudice, and even worse. Although it seems to get better as the decades go by, there are still a handful of people in the world that haven’t realized that we are all made equal. Because of the incident, the black community was outraged that someone could be so blatantly racist, as well as supposedly yell racial slurs. Although someone was shot, the community still thought it was unjust that the teens were being tried as adults. Even though their voice was strong, it wasn’t strong enough to reach all of Guthrie because of its predominantly white population. The sad part about the killing is that because of the white population in Guthrie, the racism will probably continue to be neglected until a colossal event happens that is big enough to end racism once and for all.

After reading the above, anyone can conclude that the racism in small southern towns is very insignificant to the problems of the rest of the world, but at the same time, is very hostile as well as threatening to the lives of the citizens that live in these towns. Although these problems can be easily fixed, almost every citizen that lives in the area is either a part of the problem, or is outnumbered by the people starting these problems. If these problems aren’t resolved soon, people will continue to open their news papers to stories about people being killed a religion or skin color. When you take a step back and look at the issue, it seems to be a big deal, but like many other conflicts in this world, it’s just another small thread in a large blanket.