Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/26/h-green-v-d-trump.html
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I read that book that featured these. It was a horror thing (I’m too lazy to look right now). This was the most horrifying part.
Good book though.
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Lovecraft Country? Felt more like sci-fi and high fantasy to me than “horror” so maybe you refer to something else?
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I wonder what’s used in it’s place now? I want to believe nothing’s needed but I still see all sorts of bullshit online that makes me think no there’s still a need for this type of service.
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Nope, that’s the one.
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The story of being Black in America is a horror story.
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Seems like these are still needed, given the NAACP has been given out travel advisories for airlines/states. Also, surely there’s demand for a gay/lesbian edition, too.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Get Out, and how its popularity was premised on that fact. It whispered to its white viewers, “And you’re the monsters,” and still it resonated with them, because on some level they already damn well knew that. I wonder why more movies like that don’t get made.
/looks at the number of black directors allowed to work in Hollywood
Oh, right, that’s why more movies like that don’t get made. It’ll be interesting to see how Peele’s Lovecraft Country tv series turns out.
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That ‘the sunken place’ is actually a metaphor for that overwhelming sense of hopeless helplessness that most POC living in the US feel at some point is pretty telling…
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And it’s interesting how often the phrase is now being used - mainstream popular culture hadn’t ever provided a concise descriptor of that feeling before, apparently.
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Its always a good reference when certain people nowadays (such as anti-gay Christian bigots) talk about discrimination in open commerce being OK because people can always go to another vendor for their goods/services.
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I’m not about to argue against that… I’m just saying Lovecraft country didn’t feel like horror. The good guys win out. Magic abounds.
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I fear Victor Green may be weeping in his grave at the state of this nation currently being mislead by a bloated bigoted pervert whose only obvious goal is to undo every accomplishment of President Obama. His publication would need to be far thicker in order to name all the locations of hate at this point.
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I suspect that if a restaurant or service station refused to serve African-Americans these days, they would very quickly be subject to crushing lawsuits and demonstrations. It does a disservice to those that endured rampant, legal, and overt discrimination pre-64 to pretend that things have not changed significantly since then.
On the other hand, it would be good to patronize businesses that were non-discriminatory back then, and still exist.
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Here’s a great podcast episode on the Green Book which tells the history from a design and business model perspective:
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There are still many other ways of making customers who aren’t white feel unwelcome (much, much longer times for a table and then for drinks and food, for instance).
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National Museum of African American History and Culture has a great interactive (and award winning - see link) “Follow the Green Book” exhibit that lets you plan a trip. Also - the children’s book “Watsons go to Birmingham, 1963” is another great way for families to experience this important history.
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A friend of mine’s father was white, but he was from rural Appalachia, so to many people he sounded black on the phone. His wife was from Baltimore, and they had a much easier time making reservations if she made the call.
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And the museum’s gift shops carries the 1954 Green Book facsimile edition!
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As a technical note: The Green Book does not list locations of hate. It works in the other direction, listing the hotels, restaurants, etc., where the Black traveler could get service. It was a fairly thin book…
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You may well be right. A web search on “black customers in restaurants” is not uninformative.
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