How to spot a racist

Here's a clue: if upon seeing a 55-year old photo of a local woman, a person who has been dead for decades, the first words out of an individual's mouth are "You know why half her kids were so dark? She had affairs with the porters on the train." Holy wah. Talk about bad re-runs of infantile gossip from the local junior high's mean girls table. 

Of course, the person regurgitating this ancient piece of junior high crap said it in total seriousness. Again, holy wah. It was remarkably stupid back in the '60s and it's remarkably stupid now. It was (and no doubt still is) a reflection of the steeped into the bone.anti-Native prejudice still much too common in an area that includes an Indian reservation and has always had a significant percentage of Anishinaabe students in the L'Anse and Baraga school districts, including the woman's children who were probably classmates of the racist. Odds are the dumb cunt* who spouted this nonsense first heard at the mean girls table back in 7th grade and has been sure it was true ever since. 

And, on top of the evidence of the idiot's ingrained bigotry, it also sets some sort of record for sheer stupidity. The S.O. and I both have railroad backgrounds. We joke that the family coat of arms includes a switch broom. I used to take the train a lot. As a dependent of a Chicago & Northwestern employee I got to ride for free, which I did on a regular basis. I know what conditions were like on passenger trains 60+ years ago. The idea of any porter, black, white, or purple, managing to do the nasty with a non-passenger even one time let alone multiple times gives a whole new dimension to the term ludicrous. The porters worked hard and did not have a lot of time for spending the two minutes the train stood in a station banging any of the locals. Then when you toss in the issue of sundown towns. . .My dad explained sundown towns when I asked why the African-American dining car waiter never got off the train in Ironwood even though it was a station where the train sat in the station long enough for the rest of the train crew to get off and hang out on the platform swapping gossip with the depot agent and chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes. (Male bonding in action.) Bottom line: It truly is the type of shitty stupid slur that can be generated only by middle school students or people with fewer brain cells than the typical hamster. 

FWIW, this particular photo has been seen by literally hundreds of museum visitors over the twelve years I've been volunteering. This being a small rural community many elderly visitors remember the woman. Universally, everyone who remembers her or knows her family says something positive. Until this one dumb cunt*.  You know, I can't help but feel a little sorry for her. How sad and empty must her life be if as a septuagenarian she feels compelled to share 60-year old racist gossip. And what was the point? 

*I've been watching the most recent season of "The Boys." Billy Butcher seems to be influencing my vocabulary.