{"id":464,"date":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp\/index.php\/2000\/01\/01\/on-acknowledging-and-responding-to-an-african-american-students-comment\/"},"modified":"2016-12-13T08:18:18","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T08:18:18","slug":"on-acknowledging-and-responding-to-an-african-american-students-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2000\/01\/01\/on-acknowledging-and-responding-to-an-african-american-students-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"On Acknowledging And Responding To An African-American Student\u2019s Comment…"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Acknowledging And Responding To An African-American Student\u2019s Comment Hey, VZ, Don\u2019t You Know That Way Back In The Day, You Probably Would\u2019ve Been One Of Those Cracker Slave-Owning White Guys, You Know, Everybody Would Be Doing It, That\u2019s The Way It Was, So, So Would\u2019ve You?<\/H3><\/center> by Frank Van Zant<\/A><\/I>
<\/p>\n

<\/span>I. Yes, Jason, it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

I could\u2019ve been that way, it\u2019s true. <\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m Dutch and some Dutch <\/p>\n

did brisk business in bodies and souls.<\/p>\n

I could\u2019ve done that too.<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But don\u2019t think that I could<\/p>\n

NOT have been one of those<\/p>\n

Abolitionist white guys, that I <\/p>\n

couldn\u2019t have fought against <\/p>\n

slavery.<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t think that just because<\/p>\n

I\u2019m white<\/p>\n

I\u2019m here to do you <\/p>\n

wrong.<\/p>\n

Now. Today. These days.<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Because just because I\u2019m <\/p>\n

white<\/p>\n

doesn\u2019t mean I should<\/p>\n

glad-hand a bigot,<\/p>\n

should I, Justin?<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>II. A Thought-Provoker In Return<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

VZ: <\/span>Jason–Matt over here will confirm<\/p>\n

<\/span>this– Did you know there were a few,<\/p>\n

<\/span>not many but a few, black men in America<\/p>\n

<\/span>who owned slaves?<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

JASON, incredulous: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>Now why on earth would a black man<\/p>\n

<\/span>EVER want to own slaves?<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

VZ: <\/span>Money, Jason, money.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The slaves made people richer.<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>And Jason, there\u2019s another<\/p>\n

<\/span>question you could ask too:<\/p>\n

<\/span>Why would any person judge<\/p>\n

<\/span>any other based on color<\/p>\n

<\/span>and not the content<\/p>\n

<\/span>of that person\u2019s <\/p>\n

<\/span>character?<\/p>\n



<\/p>\n

Van Zant has taught near-dropouts for 14 years and has written many other poems related to students in his alternative school–white, black and Hispanic (dysfunctionality knows no racial boundaries).<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2000 Frank Van Zant. All rights reserved.<\/font><\/small><\/small> <\/small> <\/font><\/b> {jos_sb_discuss:9}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Acknowledging And Responding To An African-American Student\u2019s Comment Hey, VZ, Don\u2019t You Know That Way Back In The Day, You Probably Would\u2019ve Been One Of Those Cracker Slave-Owning White Guys, You Know, Everybody...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[94,110],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tma-articles-and-commentary","tag-poetry","tag-the-multiracial-activist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/08\/Articles-and-Commentary.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-7u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2050,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/2050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}