1973 to 1975
The junior high I attended was part of the complex where I went to sixth grade at. In a reverse busing situation, white kids from the surrounding area were transported into predominantly black Markham to attend seventh and eighth grade.
When I entered that school in 1973, the idealism of the hippie movement was morphing into the hedonism of the disco scene. For all practical purposes, there was an “anything goes” sort of mentality in America. This was being demonstrated by some of my peers at the time. Though many of my classmates in sixth grade were already having sex, (If I remember correctly, two girls got pregnant during that school year.), some of the white kids in seventh grade were already doing drugs. I specifically recall a student describing the “mickey mouse” effect of LSD. I would not start experimenting with drugs until I was a sophomore in high school.
We didn’t have the most diverse student body. It was basically black and white. There were very few Asians or Mexicans, though our Principal was Hispanic. Perhaps everyone was on their best behavior while they were in front of me, but I do not recall any racial incidents in that two year period. We were living in the aftermath of “The Age of Aquarius”. Everyone appeared to get along. (Incidentally, this “brotherhood of man” vibe would continue throughout my high school years. Years later, I would learn that this was all a facade.)
As a result of my increase interaction with white people, I started to lose some of my “blackness”. This is/was an ongoing process that finally brought about an epiphany at age 25. (I’ll go into that in a later chapter.) This metamorphosis has never been complete. To this day, if I get into an animated conversation with some people, I’ll sometimes unconsciously slip into the over usage of the affectionate term “motherfucker”.
As we all know, it’s hard to break old habits. From the age of seven to seventeen, (when I finally moved away from home), there was always black people around me. I, unconsciously and consciously, adopted many of the idiosyncrasies of that culture. As you can tell, I’m not alone. For all practical purposes, American culture is black culture. That is strange if you think about it. The United States is a melting pot of many different groups of people.
