Of Race, Ethnicity and Religion

If you want to read some really great posts today -about racism and prejudices -check out these two bloggers -Suldog and The Surly Writer -with their joint post about those things. It's really a great read, a tremendous eye-opener too about these issues. The name of the post is "Juneteenth." And, if you've never read either of these bloggers stuff before, I highly recommend that you snoop around on both sites and you'll find some really great stuff, for sure!

After reading both their posts on the topic of racism, I decided to pull out an article I wrote five years ago this spring for the little, now defunct, monthly newsletter publication I used to write for from time to time.

This piece addresses the type of prejudice that was really a huge issue in this area from the beginnings of this village and through the 50s, even stretching a good bit into the 60s here too.

After this piece was published, many folks from around the area came to me and told me how they too had been raised to feel inferior or superior to others in the area based simply on what country their ancestors had come from and what church they belonged to. Some of my friends and I have had numerous discussions too about the similiarities and differences of our childhood and the prejudices that existed and how much we feel now that we missed by not being allowed to play freely with others in the village.
Traitorous Taste-buds
By Jennifer Hill Ertmer
Published June 2004 – West Branch Review

I grew up in a very segregated society, not in the south, but right here in the middle of Pennsylvania, in the little coal-mining community I still call home – Grassflat.

No, it wasn’t segregated based on what most people think about when you use that term – not on race, but rather based on one’s ethnicity and religion.

When I was a young’un, one’s ethnic background and religious choices were of utmost importance to where I was allowed to go, who I was permitted to have for friends and playmates.

I grew up living with my mother’s parents whose origins were Swedish and they belonged to the Lutheran Church here with deep-set Swedish roots. Along the street where I lived, most of the other families were of similar ethnicity and the majority also belonged to the same church, thus making those children acceptable playmates and friends - at least according to my Grandmother’s stern standards anyway.

What my grandmother didn’t know was that her tomboy granddaughter occasionally ventured a little further from home and every now and again, even dared to play with other kids who were Slovak and, perish the thought, Catholic as well.

The exceptions to Grandma’s strict rules were the Bunyak’s just up the street from us, and the Little family who lived next door, or now and then, the Kuzilla family who lived across from my great-uncle down the street. These three families I think may have been the only Slovak/Catholics who met with Grandma’s approval.

By the same token, many of the other kids in town my age, but who lived in the Dobry Town or Pleasant Hill areas of Grassflat, probably had the same rules and regulations imposed on them that they were not to associate with those Swedish Lutherans either

It was a stupid concept when you think about it later in life, and one that is typical of the ignorance people frequently exhibit in society. It is a classical case, I suppose you could say, of “institutionalized racism/prejudice.”

Although I knew pretty much the boundaries set by Grandma of who I could associate with, where I could go, etc., it took a birthday party when I was perhaps 8 or 9 years old to galvanize my own incentive to break free of this particular cultural stigma.

That party, given by Mrs. Kuzilla for her daughter Veronica, who was three years younger than I, was quite an affair. Unlike most birthday parties I was accustomed to at which the fare usually was cake, ice cream and something to drink, Mrs. Kuzilla had fixed what would be considered a major feast. It was at that party that my taste buds first met up with a dish that was to become a life-long favorite – pigs in a blanket, or “halupki”!

I came home full of stories to tell my Mom and Grandma about all the food there. But this entrée had definitely had a very, very lasting impression on me and I begged for months, even years, after for Mom or Grandma to please make “piggies.”

I finally figured out this dish was considered too Slovak or Polish for either Mom or Grandma to consider cooking, and the less said about it the better. But the experience started my taste buds on the road to degradation. As I got older, I had more opportunity to experiment with other foods and, hopefully, got a lot wiser about other “differences” too.

It was after one of my jaunts a little further from home than was actually permitted, and playing with a girl my age whose ethnicity was Slovak and who was also Catholic (to add insult to injury), and I was invited into her home, where her mother offered me some type of Slovak pastries she had just made that were absolutely to die for, when I realized one thing for sure. I had to keep that discovery to myself. I dared not reveal I had been consorting with the enemy, as perceived by my Grandma, and worse yet, had even dined with them!

To this day, I still remember the sweet goodies made by Vicky Little’s mom, Helen (Bunyak) Little, but I have no clue as to what they were called. All I know is they were deep-fried and absolutely fantastic.So much so that now my mouth is watering just from the memory and I think I will surf an International website once more in hopes of finding a recipe that looks even remotely like these great morsels were!

Yep! That's how things were when I was a kid and for me, it was a whole lot easier than it was 30 years earlier here for my Mom as back then, in her day, many of the kids in town didn't speak English when they started school and for a lot of them, their parents never learned English or were able to communicate then with others around here.

Is comparing how I grew up with ethnic and religious barriers and prejudices the same as racism? Not completely, but there is still the fact that any prejudices are a hindrance to all of us and prevent us all from seeing the beauty of being a multi-cultural society.

Just some additional food for thought perhaps on what prejudice and bias of any type do to all of us.

Peace -Today! Please.