African American

from Georgia... and in the sixties whenever she saw black people on the TeeVee... it was n-word this and n-word that out of her mouth. My parents would make sure that I and my siblings knew that "this is just the way she is... don't pay any attention to it..."

However, being from Kansas and not growing up around many African Americans... I never really witnessed actionable racism until I moved to the Virgin Islands in the late 80s.

My then girlfriend and I were sitting in at a bar, enjoying the evening... and we noticed a gentleman seated next to us (African American) who was being completely ignored by the bar tenders (who were also black and, because this was the USVI, African Americans)... so I asked him what he wanted, ordered another round for us all including his drink, and oh shit did the bartenders get angry when I gave the man his drink! From then on, they wouldn't serve me or my girlfriend and the looks we got were down right scary.

We started talking to the guy we bought the drink for and found out he was a film director from LA on the island to shoot a commercial for something or other (soft drink? something)... and ever since he landed he said the local people have been treating him like crap... something that he had never experienced in his life. It was because he was a "Continental" black person. For some reason the local African Americans (at least in the USVI) just hated black people from the Continental US.

Very Strange to me... I'm sure there is an explanation but the incident has stuck with me ever since.