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The Forum > Article Comments > 'You and me, we sweat and strain': blacks in America and the musical Show Boat > Comments

'You and me, we sweat and strain': blacks in America and the musical Show Boat : Comments

By Peter West, published 7/1/2016

A Civil Rights Act gave citizenship to black people in 1866. But success for the North and the subjugation of the South began a long period of difficult times for people of colour.

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Have you noticed? Although there is still great racism in the United States the country has elected a dark-skinned president. The "Black Lives Matter" movement is supported by both blacks and whites. Black people have become prominent in many areas outside of sports and entertainment. I was born in the United States in 1925 and am amazed how far the country has traveled. I was the US Army during WW2. It was segregated into black and white. It is now as many institutions in the US fully integrated. Show business often sanitises the past, but laws against mixed race marriage no longer exist anywhere in the United States. The KKK is a remnant of what it once was. Possibly racism will never be eliminated, but the United States has come a long way.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 7 January 2016 9:33:32 AM
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' Don't forget your past, and the misery whites inflicted on people of colour. And is that only in the past? You have to wonder.'

I wonder if Peter feels that the many cannibal tribes from Africa and Pacific Islands should forget their past? Look at South Africa today. Blacks and whites are far more likely to be murdered, raped or robbed. Some of the coloured might just look back with a little fondness but you are not allowed to say that are you. I would hate to think what might of happened to our own Indigenous had the French, the Japanese or some Muslim group settled here before the British. They could well of become extinct.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 7 January 2016 10:50:12 AM
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That's right , if the British Christians didn't get them the Japanese Muslims might. They were extinct in our north NSW valley a century ago, women and children all shot by armed horsemen after the men were shot out of trees where they hid.. Oi Oi.
Posted by nicknamenick, Thursday, 7 January 2016 11:27:24 AM
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There Runner showing that Christian love for his fellow man again.
Clearly your not a catholic otherwise you would not have brought up cannibalism.
Posted by Cobber the hound, Thursday, 7 January 2016 12:11:20 PM
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The musical came originally from the writings of Edna Ferber. I wonder what the American readers will make of the solid criticisms made by her, and the musical, more softly, of the ways things are and have been in "the land of the free"?

What does he care if the world's got trouble?
What does he care if the land ain't free?
Posted by Waverley, Thursday, 7 January 2016 12:43:20 PM
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The Washington Post today says blacks represent 40 percent of those killed by police in the US while unarmed. Figures for dark-skinned people killed by police are also worrying in places like Brazil. Somehow you expect the US to be better than this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/final-tally-police-shot-and-killed-984-people-in-2015/2016/01/05/3ec7a404-b3c5-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_implicitbias-905pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Posted by Waverley, Thursday, 7 January 2016 12:55:30 PM
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