Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Just wanted to tell you an incident I experienced in Savannah, Georgia. I flew in for a short vacation 11/5/08, the day after the election. I returned on the 11/10, and took a taxi to the Savannah Airport from my hotel in Savannah. The taxicab driver was a somewhat grizzled, middle-aged white guy, and as we were going through a small rural little town on the outskirts of Savannah, he began talking about police corruption in that little town--telling me of a black man who had been beaten by the police. Then somehow the conversation segued into corrupt, malicious black policemen who had cost him his job in the Savannah Police Department. Ditto his job at the airport, where the black folks in power had also done him out of $40,000. As his passion was building he finally revealed the most indignant thing that "they" had done: The day after the national election, they had put up a sign on the highway which we were transversing, which read as follows:
ALL WHITE PEOPLE TO REPORT TO COTTON FIELDS TOMORROW 6:00 A.M.
Now I thought this was hysterically funny, but I did need my friend to get me to the Savannah airport. I suggested that perhaps "they" were just having a bit of fun. No, Independent readers see as much comedy in this as I did. -Elaine Arnett, Santa Barbara