I’ve lived a long spell in a more “liberal” area of AL.

Tim Scott’s “evolution of the Southern heart” farce really disturbs me because many of my coworkers (all w/ gov’t security clearances) were racist af.

That it “evolved” or “improved” into this is jarring. Prolly accurate.

One of the shames of my life is not having been more directly and forcefully disgusted by it.

Avoiding a hostile work environment was my lame justification. These hicks had the power to screw my test over b/c they ran the govt’s testing equipment of my private company’s aircraft

I’m from CT, live in Baltimore, and shoulda done better. I failed a personal moral testing. That’s clear.

All I can do now is believe what I’ve seen repeatedly, almost boastfully down there and dispel any notion that we don’t have MAJOR work to do in the GOP controlled South.

I should add some context. The reason why the racists felt comfortable with being racist around me is something I think about often.

They felt less brazen around me over time because I did say I wasn’t cool with it, or acted squeamish, or left an area, just not with any gusto.

The reason they felt comfortable being openly racist around me, like casual hard N’s, was because they found out I was a conservative.

In the morning they’d have FoxNews on, which at the time I had few real problem with, and sometimes I’d sarcastically chide Obama or liberals.

Never a single racist utterance, and my ignorant ass just assumed they were conservatives like me and my Northeastern, devoted Catholic, beautifully inclusive family.

I just wasn’t cynical enough to expect racism from people I didn’t know.

But for real, to THEM, I was in the club and that’s just how conservatives talk in private company.

BTW these racists were cowards, they’d make fun of Black coworkers on racial grounds always behind their backs, of course, and were the kindest Southern gentleman in person.

Most of these racists even shared fun inside jokes with their Black coworkers and you’d never know.

Hell, I didn’t notice anything but unique accents and devotion to the Crimson Tide, and some gentle ribbing or an incompetent test engineer fresh out of Auburn.

The first time I heard something racist was a hard R N-word while joining the locals into town for lunch, also for the first time.

My head started spinning. A surreal situation. I can still kind of channel the feeling and it unsettles my stomach.

And that was my blown chance, right there, cuz once I didn’t speak up, the racial stuff started flying casually cuz I had “passed” their testing (failed my own).

I never went anywhere with them privately again, just told them every day I preferred my bag lunch cuz I was saving $, and I always had a book I could point to.

But for months after, whenever so was testing with a small group of the “right” people, I’d hear more.

All I’d ever muster was a sound I made with my mouth, like a slow inhale through my teeth () and the occasional, “hey, cool it” or “ah, c’mon” until it stopped and I was satisfied with that.

At the time I thought I had played it well and successed. Maybe even tamped down centuries of racism with my sighs and pouts.

They never gave me any guff, just stopped, cuz they sensed a coward not a crusader.

Lesson for all you kids out there. You will regret not doing the right thing eventually, even if you were sooooo “smart” and “aware” to avoid doing the right thing in the first place.

I wish I’d told them that they sicken me (cuz they did), and that it’s a bummer to find out many Northerners are so right in their perception of many Southerners.

So many typos, that thread got away from me. “Successed” means “succeeded” and is the most egregious. I just watched the RNC and I’m a little off.

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1299845272227454979?s=21 https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1299845272227454979