Cherry Bombs and Barbershops, how 50 years ago was a whole other time...

BLOT: (22 Jul 2011 - 02:28:06 PM)

Cherry Bombs and Barbershops, how 50 years ago was a whole other time...

In No Country for Old Men, by which I mean the book by Cormac McCarthy but also possibly the movie though I did not recall such a line, Sheriff Bell mentions that two generations back was a whole other time. I think the phrase is more along the lines of "Just two generations ago was settlers". He is taking the long view of generations, speaking as a 60-year old Texas man in 1981 thinking of the mid- to late-1800s, but even if you look at a shorter view—about 25-years per, give or take—you find plenty of evidence of how two generations is a long time for some societies. To wit...

I was helping a retired library to retrieve a 50-ish year old obit, and I came across an article titled "Explosions Mark Barber's Dispute", from the May 16, 1964 edition of the New York Times. The "Explosions" of the title are slightly mollified by the opening paragraph which describes them as cherry bombs set off near people's cars. However, this is not the best bit of the article. I will screenshot the first three paragraphs, sans permission but with no claim to the text intended:

The gist of the story is that some college kids took offense that white barbers were refusing to serve black clients and so started a mostly quite protest tied in with helping promote those barbers that were considered "open". Some took great offense that white barbers should be boycotted and even picketted, much less complained about, for keeping their shears nice and Aryan-scented. Defenses for the discrimination included the idea that white barbers were untrained in cutting non-Caucasian hair, and that black people in a barber shop would chase off good white clients. Though strangely absent was that Negro hair might rub off on white hair and make it extra curly. A favorite of mine was that blacks, presumably by letting white college students demand civil rights, were just trying to cause trouble. One suggestion that maybe white barbers could hire black barbers to cut black hire was shot down as impractical because "Negroes only constitute 2 percent of the area's potential clientele". According to census data, this is amazingly accurate [5400-ish blacks to a total county population of 2616200], which surprises me.

The article, if you can find it [here's the NYTimes archive link, though I don't know how purchasing it directly works...], has some absolutely wonderful quotes embedded, that go a long way to point out that 50 years ago (47 even), just two generations, was a much more different world that we realize. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

There's a quote about the Catholic priest that says that the Church abhors discrimination but then "with philosophical resignation", he adds that the Church has tried to get people to follow the 10 commandments for 2000 years. Either that's a nonsequitor or the priest just said that "Screw it, I'm tired of trying to tell people what to do...". I'll add, for my own amusement, a little "Burn in Hell", under his breath.

Then it ends with the following bit, which is just perfect, and is so very, very much like an ending lecture to South Park. Go ahead, read it out in Kyle's voice, you'll feel better:

I'm not sure if they are using the word "crisis" wrong, or if I have been...

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: July 2011