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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elf Witch" data-source="post: 5823768" data-attributes="member: 9037">I understand what you are saying. I don't think you are a smartass. I often wonder how I being raised by one parent who was quite type racist and one who actually has members of the Klan who are proud of the fact that they hung those uppity blacks how I turned out to be the open minded person I am today.I remember one of the worst spankings I ever got was because at a family dinner after listening to my Uncle JG going on and on about how all blacks should be shipped back to Africa of course he didn't use the word black.  I innocently asked why, it wasn't like they asked to come here they were ripped away from their families in Africa. I was around seven. My mother gave me the belt for being a smart ass. I was truly confused. Most of my family is rather racist today to different degrees.  So why am I not that way it was the environment I was raised in. This may sound silly but I think a lot has to do with the fact that I grew up in South Florida while the rest of my family was in Georgia and South Carolina and I was friends with Cubans and Jews. The silly part is that I think growing up being addicted to Star Trek with its message of equality had a lot to do with the person I became.I was adopted I sometimes wonder if I had been raised in Aiken South Carolina would I be the the person I am today. So looking back to the south of 1860 most of those Southerners had never traveled there was no television or radio only books and papers the majority of them only knew their culture and in their culture slavery was legal. They heard it in their churches that god said slavery was okay. It is very hard to overcome what you are taught. One thing about me is that even as a child I hated any kind of injustice I have always had a strong sense of fairness. Maybe I have gene for that and it is hard wired in me. How much of what we become is environment VS genetics is something we are still unsure about.   So maybe you are right it is hard wired into you to be the way you are and you would have been then same growing up in the mid 1800s. It is an interesting thing to ponder at least I think so.</blockquote>

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