“What Happened to Them?”

By HRM Deborah

I am going to relay, my first understanding of racism in America.

When I was about seven years-old, it was August 1965, we where living in Southern California and my mother ever so often use to take me to a shopping center, for it seemed she liked a particular market at this center and in those days; I did not know about malls.

By this shopping center was to my memory, had a sand colored brick wall and not very tall; because I could see over it.

On this particular day in the early part of August, we went to the shopping center and I decided to walk over and see what was on the other side of the wall; when all of a sudden, my mother called me to come back.

Watts Riot, August 1965.

She explained to me not to get close to the wall because on the other side the Watts Riots where occurring for in her tone she thought something may come over the wall to accidentally hurt me and what little she did explain because mostly it was one of those cases when a parent says you will understand when you are older or I will tell you when you are older and sometimes parents forget. But I must admit, the whole idea of a riot confused me and a bit saddened me within my stomach that such as this would be happening.

Nevertheless, I asked my mother, “What happened to them,” meaning what happened to the black Americans.

Every so often I would hear the white people say, they needed to carry guns in there lunch boxes and cars, to conveying incidents I could not really believe; but yet, I wondered what happened to cause such as this, I would not learn an inkling of the true reason until many years later, even though I had seen and learned several things by that time.

To this day, I still have a special place in my heart for the plight of the black Americans; since that very day, because of a further understanding what it is like in my home country of Israel and has been for my family.

About two years prior to this incident not just myself but others, we were being subjected to harsh Anti-Semitism and racism in the US; but never being a person that believed in such at this, at the time did not quite understand that there were people that would do such a thing to others and still do not believe in such as this.

For as a black lady told me one day, " being prejudice is something that is taught and one is not born this way;" thank goodness!