We've amassed quite a collection of racist viral emails here at LiePie.com.  Sharon Jasper and Section 8 Housing has enjoyed a popularity surge recently, but let's not forget New Orleans vs. Iowa Floods, Black Robbers, Dear Mr. Obama, Anti-Obama GOTV Poem, and my new favorite, Proud to be White.  You can also search the Lie Piebrary for "lie taco" and "lie kebab" if you'd like to see more.

I wish I could pontificate about these racist viral emails and discrimination in America the way lots of white folks do, but I don't feel qualified.  I don't know what it's like to be black in America.  I've spent my entire life surrounded by white people.  How could I have an opinion about something I know nothing about?

You might wonder how I managed to live my entire life surrounded by white people.  It seems a marvel in this day and age!  All I know is, I grew up in rural Iowa and there weren't any black kids in my school from K-12.  In fact, there weren't any black kids in our conference.  When I went to a district track meet as a junior in high school, I vividly remember seeing one lone black girl who, to my surprise, wasn't a very fast runner.  I always wondered why all the black people seemed to live in Des Moines rather than in the country like I did.  Turns out, I grew up in a sundown town.  For years during the early part of the 20th century there was a sign posted at the town limit that said, "Nigger, don't let the sun set on you in Our Town."  There had been a small settlement of black people on the south end of town dubbed "Burr Town" by the white locals, but at some point their houses were torched and they were all driven out of town.  The rubble from those old foundations is still visible if you know where to look.

I left rual Iowa when I was 18 and attended a Christian university with a very small African American enrollment.  I recall only one or two black girls living in any of my dorms in 4 years.  Most of the black students were housed on the other side of campus.  In the years after graduation, I occasionally worked with black people, but not very closely because they tended to work in other departments.  I worked with the white people in marketing and administration, and the black people always worked in housekeeping, food service, and nursing.  I did attend an EEO training once because the company that hired me had settled a discrimination lawsuit by, among other things, agreeing to provide information about discrimination and harrassment during the new employee orientation process.  The company apparently had a strong preference for hiring only white people for management positions, and it became a problem when they had to defend themselves against the discrimination complaint in court.  Anyway, I now reside in 82% white Cary, North Carolina.  I did see a couple of black people once at my church. 

I wonder if living around nothing but white people has made me institutionalized.  "These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's institutionalized."  Sometimes I think about the rubble of those foundations in Burr Town.  I wonder what happened to those friendless refugees from slavery, huddled together and desperate for a foothold, driven from their homes, terrorized, impoverished, hungry.  I think about what might have been had I grown up with their grandchildren.  How would their lives be different?  How would my life be different?  No one will ever know, honey.  So I'm sorry I can't talk to you about racism in America.  I don't really know any black people.  You're on your own.