Okay what a horrible way to kick off this years voter registration drive. Yesterday a Black woman I knew vaguely from my days working at Weaver’s Way co-op. comes up to me at the little table I had set up on Ridge Ave. with a young Black man she introduced as her grandson. She said she had heard that I use to lecture on the civil rights movement and would I please explain to her grandson that the Holocaust was a hoax. Now I must admit I had heard the woman say that to someone about 10 years ago. But I was completely horrified that she somehow got the idea that I would back her up… I took a deep breath and I took my best shot..I said ” Well first of all the Holocaust being a hoax is an urban legend started by white supremacist in the 1970s. I could see her face getting distorted …she was not getting the response she expected.. “In fact” I continued “the Holocaust very well may be the most well documented event of the 20th century” At this point she had had enough, she began screaming at me. “Where do you get your information?” . I mentioned my Uncle Lucius Bridges who was one of the American soldiers who liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp. I was going to continue by explaining how I spent half my childhood living and work around survivors from the Polish death camp Treblinka. which is true.. they had a small community in S.W. Atlanta in the 1950s and 60s..but by then she stormed off. claiming I was “brain washed”.. This morning I am still horrified that this woman a Black woman, supposedly some type of Christian minister would believe something that stupid …but why the hell did she come to me to help her prove it to her grandchild. I wonder how many other Black people have heard this crap?…how many Black people believe it? Is this something some fringe group of Black Christians are preaching in the pulpit? Scratching my head ….but I will continue to be out there health permitting about three days a week registering voters … if you know anyone who just turned 18 send them my way..
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