Races tolerate each other but don't mingle on social level

Emmitt Jimmar shared the same curiosity as his fellow teachers back in 1969 when they were all called together by administrators to discuss how desegregation would be handled in Florence schools.

What he heard has stayed with him since that day.

"We were told to tolerate the cultural differences," Jimmar said. "They told us to tolerate them, not respect them."

It's his opinion that blacks and whites in the Shoals have been tolerating each other for more than 30 years but not necessarily respecting one another.

He concedes that attitude is likely the reason why the Shoals was spared the violence seen often in other areas of the South at the time. Yet, it's also to be blamed for the lack of "real and meaningful progress" in racial relations.

"If you talk about it, it's all good," Jimmar said. "If you're observing it, it's not so good. We're talking the talk, but we're not walking the walk.

"We've spent 30 years tolerating instead of having a period of honest evaluation that could lead to true respect for the diversity of our society."

He gives a simple example to back up his point.

"When a black man sees a white man walking down the street, he sees a white man. And when a white man sees a black man walking down the street, he sees a black man," Jimmar said. "We're not seeing a man walking down the street."

He said both races would often say the politically correct things and tell people racial relations are just fine. Their actions, however, suggest otherwise.

"There's no mingling between the races," said Jimmar, a black man who now represents teachers for the Alabama Education Association. "We don't socialize together. When the workday is over, it's 'you go your way and I'll go mine.'

"Even in schools, you can find best of friends among black and white students. They can be involved in the same activities, hang out together during school and eat lunch together, but the number of times they spend a night together would be almost void."

Wayne Reynolds, a white man living in Lauderdale County, said he sees people of both races "just going through the motions" and "putting their best foot forward" when they are communicating with people of the opposite race. He views the political correctness as being painfully obvious to anyone willing to pay attention.

He said some people legitimately accept members of the opposite race as their equals and as true friends. But like Jimmar, he said even those people tend to socialize in other groups.

"How often do you see couples of opposite races eat dinner together?" Reynolds said, answering a question with a question.

"I sure don't see it very often. You might see them eating lunch together in a work setting, but not at night or on the weekend."

He makes a point that progress overall has been positive in the Shoals, which as recently as 20 years ago had a listing for the Ku Klux Klan in the yellow pages of the local telephone directory.

When Alexander Takeuchi moved to Alabama four years ago, he was surprised at what he found as he surveyed the campus of the University of North Alabama.

"I'm used to seeing a lot of students hanging out regardless of race, but it's different here," said the UNA professor of sociology. He moved to the Shoals from the state of Washington.

"Many people, both black and white, pretty much think of the race relationship as a black/white issue," he said. "It's not all about race anymore; it's about culture."

And the South, he says, has a culture that accepts division. Takeuchi said politeness is a mainstay of Southern culture, yet that friendly hand does not extend beyond comfortableboundaries.

"It's just a mental barrier that people think is too big, and it's actually not too big," he said. "It just takes a little bit of courage."

He said a major divisive problem for the younger generation involves a lack of knowledge about people outside their own communities. In general, he said Alabamians don't have clear ideas about people of other races and cultures because they have isolated themselves from them.

"Many people haven't been exposed to anything other than their good ol' neighborhoods, either black or white," Takeuchi said. "For the most part, young people in Alabama are not really prejudiced; they are culturally shy. The key to understanding isexposure."

Such experiences, however, will not occur on a broad level until people dare to explore outside the familiar. It's a slow process, he said.

One example occurred at UNA where few students took advantage of international exchange opportunities.

"They were so hesitant, and that was before 9-11," he said.

Eventually, officials decided to create a program of domestic exchange, hoping it would pique students' interest.

With the state demographics changing the way they have in the past few decades and Alabama's long history of racial issues, Takeuchi said the state must deal with relations between black and white. He said, however, that Alabamians must also develop an attitude of learning to accept other groups and cultures.

"We have to get people exposed to more diversity because we are living in the 21st century," he said. "Exposure to different people and exposure to the outside world is the key to understanding. Eventually, those things will loosen up young people's attitudes."

Lamont Liner, a black resident from Florence, said race relationships are "better than they were in 1923, but we've got a long way to go."

He said a person only needs to look to the city halls, courthouses and police departments to realize the Shoals has not truly accepted blacks as equals.

"A lot of places are still living in the '50s and '60s," said Liner, president of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "But we have seen some progress as far as attitudes, and we don't see the violence or pronounced segregation like we used to.

"But there still seems to be an economic gap between the two races, and there's still a big gap in administrative positions in all areas.

"In Florence, for instance, the school system is way behind as far as the number of black teachers. Look in the police department and city hall. The black population is 18 percent, but that's not reflected in the municipal building, city jobs and in the utilities department. And administration is almost all lily white. That tells me racism is still alive."

He blames the gaps on two factors.

"Some of it is old-fashioned Southern racism," Liner said. "There is also apathy and the willingness to accept the status quo, and the belief that some things will never change."

In Sharon Taylor's life, she sees harmony between the races. But to say racism doesn't exist would be foolish, she said.

"People think racism is about whites mistreating blacks and having a negative opinion about blacks," Taylor, who is white, said recently during a shopping outing at Wal-Mart in Florence. "Racism goes both ways. I honestly believe that whites are more respectful of blacks than the other way."

Liner and others say interracial marriages are a good gauge of the racial barometer in the area. They seem to agree that the number of black and white couples being married has risen consistently in recent years.

Jimmar said interracial marriages are tolerated and generally accepted, "but there are some who still disagree, and it's on both sides of the coin - blacks and whites."

Liner says it shows that "we haven't arrived" because people of both races often have negative thoughts about interracial marriages.

"About 30 years ago, people were coming up dead and their houses were being shot into for marrying outside their race," he said.

Jimmar says the tolerance in racial relationships will continue until leaders emerge with the courage to make a statement. He said politicians cannot be the leaders. Instead, it has to start with someone in the community who is respected and committed.

"Both sides have to wake up one day and say 'we're not going to have these lines based on race anymore,' " Jimmar said. "That has to become an agenda from the richest of people to the poorest of people. That's when we can begin accepting rather than tolerating."

Mike Goens can be reached at 740-5740 or mike.goens@timesdaily.com.

Joseph Bryant can be reached at 74-5745 or jospeh.bryant@times-daily.com.