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POLITICS
Are You Ready for the Racism and Misogyny?
It has already started against Kamala…
Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, racism and misogyny were considered somewhat acceptable behavior in our society. When I reached my teens, our country was in the midst of turmoil. At 16 (1969) I had already been exposed to:
Assassination of JFK — 1963, Lyndon Johnson signing the civil rights act — 1964, Mississippi Murders by KKK white supremacists — 1965, News broadcast of the Vietnam War — 1965, Feminist Movement — 1967, Martin Luther King’s assassination — 1968, Counterculture movement — 1969
My family unit had also dissolved in 1964 as my parents separated, then divorced a year later. The church shunned my mother for not staying with him after the affair was exposed. These events cemented my attitude about the hypocrisy of organized religions and the patriarchal male control over women. Personal experiences with sexual harassment by adult males in my teens, being raped by an acquaintance at 18, losing a job at 23 when I refused to sleep with my manager, all contributed to my fierce feminism and independence. These experiences shaped my moral compass and views of the world I now stand firmly on.
I had become radicalized and an anomaly in my own family!