Rant #3,307: The Way

Black History Month is over, but there is no reason not to talk about black history, or anyone's background or history, whenever the subject comes up.

I had an interesting experience on Facebook yesterday, related to black history on television, but a discussion that stepped way over thst subject into something that I honestly could not foresee and had no idea that it would amount to.

A Facebook.poster put up a message that "The Andy Griffith Show" was, as was the norm for the time it was produced in, not a very diverse place as far as actors were concerned, using the definition of the word "diverse" that we use today.

I can't argue with that; there were very few, if any black speaking parts on thst show.

(As an aside, I really cannot stand when people use the norms of today to often unfairly ridicule the norms of the past. It serves no purpose st all, other than feeding into a "cancel culture" vibe that honestly, serves absolutely no purpose.)

I brought up that on the sequel show, "Mayberry RFD," there was a regular black character on thst series: Charles Lampkin, a black actor who had a very interesting career, played a Mayberry farmer named Ralph on that show.

But not having a diverse cast did not take away from the fact that "The Andy Griffith Show," by any definition, was a classic TV show.

I brought up my own situation to give more solid backing to my claim:

"The norms of the time were different, and "Mayberry RFD" did have a recurring black character. 

I also didn't see any Jews on the show, either. The whole town seemingly went to church every Sunday, but were there Jews in Mayberry?

I, as a Jew, never questioned it, and it really wasn't important at all.

The show was a classic. The end."

i had a few fellow respondents state thst they didnt know that there was a regulsr black character on "Mayberry RFD," and that they would check the show out to see what i was talking about.

Now, that should have been the end of the discussion ... but one respondent wanted to bring the discussion into another dimension, one that I did not expect, but one, given the world we live in, that shouldn't be very surprising:

"That's because yall are too busy bombing babies."

Since Hamas began the war with Israel, latent anti-Semitism in some people, which probably has festered under the surface in their warped minds for years, has exploded in all media and onto our streets.

Once again, Jews are being blamed for all.of the world's ills, and some people believe that they now have the freedom to voice this filth and inject it in any and all conversations.

Jews are once again being looked at as emissaries of the devil, and based on Hamas's very reason for existing--that each and every Jew must be removed from.the face of the earth--some people are proudly and blatantly jumping on this insane bandwagon of hate.

And in our country, anti-Semitism, and acts related to it, are on the rise at horrific levels not seen in generations.

Well, I just had to reply to this fool, and I did just that:

"Get a hobby. You are an anti-Semite imbecile, taking a comment I made thst was not political into one that you felt the dire need to show your true colors. I have spent more time on you than you deserve. Moderator--get rid of this fool."

Honestly, I don't expect the moderator to do anything about this person's comments, because I have seen similar comments made in other Facebook threads, and pretty much nothing is done.

The world we live in today is a scary place. Way before the war, I was a victim of more than a couple of anti-Semitic incidents over the years, one where a neighbor came right up to me when I was holding my then-infant daughter in my srms and called me the most vile anti-Jewish name you can imagine.

But in 2024, some people believe that this door is not just ajar, but fully open for this hatred to be bantered about as part of normal conversation.

Sorry, I don't agree.

Those that have this venom of hate pulsating through their veins need to be educated and need to know that there are people from all backgrounds that will let them know how imbecilic they are.

If nothing else, these fools should keep their thoughts, however ridiculous they are, to  themselves.

A discussion of something so benign as "The Andy Griffith Show" should not elicit such repugnant responses.

Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.