POLITICS: ‘Uppity’ term sparks memories of racism

By J.W. Wood

For the Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Most people who were born and raised in the South know the rest of the phrase Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) was using when he recently referred to Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as elitist and “uppity.”

The phrase “uppity (N-word)” was used to let a black person know he was out of his “place.”

It was used on black people during the civil rights movement, who refused to give up seats on buses and who moved into segregated neighborhoods, as well as black people who used proper English. It was likely the last phrase heard by freedom riders in Mississippi before they were killed and buried in an earthen dam.

And it was the phrase I heard one day during the 1960s in southwest Atlanta when my grandmother became one of the first black families to move into what was then a predominantly white neighborhood.

While walking up Lynhurst Drive, I was surrounded by a group of white kids who decided to call me and a friend “uppity” because of our Catholic school uniforms.

We ran and were subsequently chased —- running from the words being hurled at us.

“Uppity … who do you think you are?”

“This is our neighborhood!”

Westmoreland is no better than his black counterparts who refer to young blacks who use proper English and make good grades as “trying to be white.”

Between those two factions it is very hard for young blacks, especially males, to defy the odds and move away from the vernacular and culture that make them sound and dress like 20th century slaves.

They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Westmoreland, and others like him, will then decry them as lazy and unwilling to work and achieve.

My question for Westmoreland is: How many times have you been called out for referring to a white person as “uppity?”

J.W. Wood lives in Plametto and works for the city of Atlanta.