PARTISAN
REVIEW
65
church. I brought
B--,
who is a Negro. She went to my Sunday
school class with me and after we went to service together. No one said
anything, but the church members were very cold. The next Sunday
I went to her church. All Negro. Everyone was very nice to me. A
few weeks later the pastor of my church said he wanted to fellowship
with me."
«Fellowship?"
I -asked. It sounded indecent.
Anne laughed. "Yeah. That means to counsel someone. My pastor
said I shouldn't bring
B--
to church anymore. God had divided the
races, he said, and he quoted a scripture verse where God warned Israel
about mingling with the People of the Land. She will be happier with
people of her own kind, he said."
"How did you feel about that?"
"I thought it was cruel. And typical. It was hypocritical. It wasn't
Christian. I think America is like that. America is hypocritical. We
don't do what we say. In the construction unions in Erie the Negroes
can't get jobs. They get worse grades in school, even if they do the
same work as the whites. The coaches don't like to use them on the
teams, especially football, because the white parents object. The high
schools are very bad, very dull. None of the students like them. What
good is it, high school?
If
you are a boy you end up a laborer doing
awful work.
If
you are a girl you get married and live like my mother.
You get old. Or if you are a boy maybe you have to go to war."
"What do you think ought to be done?"
"We're trying to start an SDS chapter in our school. We want to
have a student strike to force the school to give power to the students.
We want to handle our own discipline. We want to run the school
paper, not have it be just a rag for the principal to brainwash with.
We want to have outside speakers from the Movement come in and
talk.
We want to be able to judge textbooks and teachers. We want
to be able to discuss important things in class, like drugs and real pol.
itics and black history and capitalism as it really is."
"Is there much of a drug problem in Erie?"
"Did you see the hippies in the park? No? Well, there are always
hippies in the park downtown. Lots of kids use grass but not too many
use hard drugs. A couple years ago more kids thought getting wrecked
was the most beautiful thing, but now, I guess now kids are into politics
more. Pot doesn't seem such a wild thing. We get high just learning what
to do, just rapping."
"Is there much sexual activity in the high schools, among the
~dical
students," I asked, and then felt embarrassed for her. I had
forgotten her pregnancy.
