WEBVTT 1 00:03.000 --> 00:06.000 Talk to me about some of the changes that you've noticed. 2 00:06.000 --> 01:05.000 Yeah, yeah. A lot of the changes is that people are not united like they used to be. Everybody is into their own world now. And I guess including me, it's just like we don't need anyone now. I mean, we got all these luxuries, and we got our car, and we have got our children, and we're doing our own thing. We just don't talk and meet, and do a lot of things, that we used to do before. Before, when we didn't have cars, we used to go from house to house. I would go to this one's house, and we would pick up there and go to another house, and pick up and we would just all get in our little huddle, at somebody's house, or in the road somewhere, underneath the trees somewhere, and just talk, communicate. We used to go play with each other. We used to go and sit down, and we used to bring covered dishes, and we used to do all those things. That doesn't happen anymore. 3 01:05.000 --> 02:01.000 People have telephones. People don't even call people to see how they're doing anymore. That doesn't happen. It's a lot of things that doesn't happen that used to happen. We just lost the sense of togetherness. We just lost the sense of happiness, in terms of helping each other. If I've got you, and I keep all what I've got, and I don't share with you. We don't do none of that anymore. If I have a friend, if my friend says, "Earnestine, I need $5." I would give it to her. But if someone said, "Send me some grits or some rice." Before, we used to go to each other's house. They didn't have to be home. We could go in there, and if we know we need some flour, we could get what we need, and go home, and we'll say, "Look girl, I've been in your house today. I got me some flour and some sugar." You don't do that anymore. It just doesn't happen. I think too much, anymore, people take advantage of you anymore, more than anything. Do you see what I'm saying? 4 02:01.000 --> 02:05.000 Mm-hmm. 5 02:05.000 --> 02:44.000 People just don't trust. People lock doors. We didn't have to lock doors before. We didn't have to lock up doors, and anything anymore. Gee, we don't even see each other too much anymore. People are into our own thing, and people are working, and have their own thing to do. So, it's a whole big change. Not because, I guess, we wanted to do it, it's just that people have more to do. People have to provide for their families. And now, it's because people work, can earn money. People just do that. 6 02:44.000 --> 02:49.000 So, do you think that it's because of the work outside of the home, you might say? 7 02:49.000 --> 02:49.000 Yes. 8 02:49.000 --> 02:49.000 Outside of the community? 9 02:49.000 --> 02:49.000 Yes, of course. 10 02:49.000 --> 02:53.000 That's what played a factor in that? 11 02:53.000 --> 02:55.000 Yes. That has a big part. Lot of— 12 02:55.000 --> 02:55.000 Do you think that integration into White society— 13 02:55.000 --> 03:00.000 Yes. 14 03:00.000 --> 03:01.000 —also, has a part in that? 15 03:01.000 --> 03:42.000 Integration has the biggest bulk of what's going on to it. And I know that for a fact, because a lot of integration have took away a lot of pride from individuals, taking them away from the community, or having to leave the community to survive. And because of that, things just change. People have gotten so—I call it Whitenized. I don't know what other term I need to use. We have gotten into what other people do. What other people have got. I want this. We've never had that problem before. And I'm not saying it's all bad, at all. 16 03:42.000 --> 03:43.000 Right. 17 03:43.000 --> 04:45.000 I'm just saying that we would be a whole lot farther, if we take what we've got, and use what we've got, and stop being so greed, for a lot of things that we wouldn't necessarily need and want. We want more than we need, and that exceeds—It's like four times. I try to get the things that I need. For an example, like clothing. I don't go out every time I get paid, and buy a new piece. I don't buy my daughter a new piece every time I get paid. I can't afford it. I don't go out and buy the—Whatever kind of sneakers they buy with the $90. My daughter don't have one pair. I don't go out, and try to get these name brand things, that everyone else have, just to be a part of the group. And thank God, so far, nine years old, my daughter have not gotten into that kind of mind-setting. 18 04:45.000 --> 04:46.000 I hear you all. 19 04:46.000 --> 05:16.000 She doesn't have that yet. She does not ask me for things that she sees other children have; not yet. But I talk with her all the time. I say, "Baby, your Mommy—I'm a single parent, and I try to make amends. I keep the house clean. I try to get things that I know that you need educationally, that I can help with, but your Mama just can't afford to go out and buy anything." I said, "Because the same skips, that I can go in the store and buy you, you can wear that. You can look just as good or just as neat as—" 20 05:16.000 --> 05:26.000 Okay. You were talking about you and your daughter's relationship. 21 05:26.000 --> 06:09.000 Yeah. I just try to head on, from a little girl, try to tell her that a lot of things that she may see other children have, but it's not necessary that they have those things. Because someone is stressed out on buying those things, versus having the things that she needs; that they need. I try to explain to her that it's a fad. People get it, because they see other people have it, and it looks good. I said, "But those same people, that are making money, we are not getting any of that money from that pair of sneakers that they're getting." I said, "If we were getting a percentage, like maybe $5 for each pair that sold, that would be helpful to us." I try to help her understand that, in that way. 22 06:09.000 --> 06:48.000 I said, "When those shoes are gone, it goes back to the person or to the company. So Mommy needs to buy for you, what she can afford. And what I buy for you, I try to make it look good. I try to keep it clean for you." And I say, "You are a pretty girl, and I try to dress you nice. I try to keep you clean, and that's the best I can do. So, when you see children talk about, 'I got this and I got that', try to be aware that the parents might be able to afford it. They may have the money. They may have other relatives, that are pulling in their resources, to help her get these things." 23 06:48.000 --> 06:49.000 You don't know how people got it. 24 06:49.000 --> 07:33.000 And I said, "We don't know how people come, but I'm telling you from experience, your mother is not getting money from all the resources to help you along." I said, "Your father, he does for you, when he can, and he does for you, as much as he can." I said, "But remember, we have to eat. We have to keep the lights on. We have to have gas. We have to get you cool, we have to be warm." And I said, "We have to pay the water bill." I said, "Those things are necessities. And if we don't have those things, then how would you want to come home one day, the water's turned off, you can't take a bath?" I said, "Then, how would that hit you? You come home one day, we don't have lights to see." I say, "So, we have to always make sure those are our priorities." 25 07:33.000 --> 07:33.000 Right. 26 07:33.000 --> 07:39.000 "And if Mommy have money enough to do other things, then we can go out and splurge a little bit." 27 07:39.000 --> 07:40.000 That's right. 28 07:40.000 --> 07:54.000 I say, "And only that, but we can't invest a lot of money, in one item, that you are going to grow out of, in a given time." I try to explain it, as elementary as I can to her, so she can understand. And she doesn't bother me. 29 07:54.000 --> 08:06.000 And when you were a child growing up, were there certain people that you went to with church with, who had a lot more than the other people? Or what- 30 08:06.000 --> 09:00.000 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There were family members, who had a lot more than other people, because most of my family are teachers, and et cetera. And some people—It appears, I know a lot of people didn't say this, or didn't probably think this, but I thought it. Thought they were better than you were. And I had that mentality about people. However, I learned through the years, and through somewhere, I don't know how, I learned that that wasn't all true. That when you go to their house, they just are as in need as I am. It's just that they may have more money, because their dad may have a different kind of job setting, and may be around people to give them more, and that would add to their family, whatever. I learned that. So, I formulated in my mind, I don't care what they have. 31 09:00.000 --> 09:32.000 As long as my mother tell us to wash them clothes, if you have to wear one piece three times a week, but you keep them clean. See, I grew up under that teaching, and whatever you wear, keep it clean. But you have to accept what you got, because this is all we have. Because we used to get hand-me-downs, and I knew that. And my grandmother, when she lived in New York, she used to send us boxes every three months. She used to get those rummage off the streets. And that used to be my new clothes. Probably third hand worn, but new clothes for me. 32 09:32.000 --> 10:10.000 And I'll never forget, I must have been in 9th or 10th grade, I always made half decent grades, but they weren't great grades. And something just clicked in me, and said, "Hey look!" To your question, I said I think some people had more, of a better whatever. I said to myself, "I'm a human being. And my Mom do for me. She loves me just as much as anyone else's Mom. So hey, get off your butt, and try to do something for yourself." I'm talking to me. And I began to—And people, they had the A class, the B class, the C class and when they get down, that's how they had the grades in school. 33 10:10.000 --> 10:39.000 All the well-known people's children were in the A class. That's Black now, I ain't talking about White and Black. I ain't talking segregation. Somebody talking Black-on-Black. All the next class of people in the B class. The next class, in the C class. The ones who didn't know their parents or nothing, in the D class. And I kind of looked through that, and I said to myself—And all the A class used to make all the A's. And all the teachers used to be real nice to them. 34 10:39.000 --> 10:42.000 As opposed to going down the line. 35 10:42.000 --> 10:57.000 And I said to myself, "I will not let that happen." I made it, in my mind, I was going to work as hard as I thought. And I knew I worked hard as they did, and I knew I did much better than a lot of them did. But when grade time comes, they had been better grades than me. 36 10:57.000 --> 11:00.000 They were just separated within the classroom? 37 11:00.000 --> 11:08.000 Exactly, within the—See, all the A class were all the ages—And they were treated—In that classroom, they were treated a little bit different than the B class. 38 11:08.000 --> 11:08.000 Were they separated seat-wise? 39 11:08.000 --> 11:09.000 No. No. 40 11:09.000 --> 11:14.000 They were together? 41 11:14.000 --> 11:21.000 All the B class go to the same classes together; all the A. They were in class, like homeroom classes. 42 11:21.000 --> 11:23.000 Oh! 43 11:23.000 --> 11:24.000 That's homeroom classes. 44 11:24.000 --> 11:24.000 Okay, I see. 45 11:24.000 --> 11:27.000 You got me? That's the difference. 46 11:27.000 --> 11:27.000 Mm-hmm. 47 11:27.000 --> 11:33.000 Homeroom classes. 48 11:33.000 --> 11:37.000 How did the students, who were A students, how did they treat these other students? How did they group— 49 11:37.000 --> 11:50.000 They just didn't mingle with them too much. But the only thing that saved it, that there were cross-sections of families, within the A to D classes. You may have had an A student, that were first cousins to the one of the D classes. 50 11:50.000 --> 11:51.000 That's why they wouldn't [indistinct 00:11:51]. 51 11:51.000 --> 12:19.000 So, they had to communicate. And then, a lot of times, they probably thought they were better, in my thinking. It didn't have to be, but in my thinking. Because I thought, they thought they were better than me. But when I realized that they weren't no better, then I began to work harder and harder. And when I knew, that I would began to work harder, and began to get more outspoken, I began to feel that they were treating me the same way they were treating the A class. I said, "Well, damn! If you have to do that, do it." 52 12:19.000 --> 12:20.000 Uh-huh. 53 12:20.000 --> 12:42.000 So then, I began to start making the honor roll, and started making the honor roll. And I noticed, I've been being treated a little better. In fact, I kind of watched that for a while, and I said to myself—But so—See, my mother was not as well known to the individual, or A class. All the A children, either their mother was school teachers. They were up-uppity. Up-uppity, I mean. 54 12:42.000 --> 12:47.000 So, what kind of job did you have to have to be the—? 55 12:47.000 --> 13:08.000 Job-wise, all those people that are in the A class, either had a good job, they were the elites in the community, in terms of people who own stores, people who have farms. You know what I'm saying? 56 13:08.000 --> 13:12.000 What distinguishes people listed in one class or the other? You said, could the minister's children—[indistinct 00:13:12] 57 13:12.000 --> 13:16.000 That all of those—Anything having to do with any kind of leadership. 58 13:16.000 --> 13:18.000 Okay, leadership. 59 13:18.000 --> 13:45.000 Any leadership, any parents who were in any kind of leadership role. Any kind of community oriented. Any kind of church affiliated, up in the church. Anything like that. They all were into a different class. See, I was in a B class, so me and my parents were a little bit less known than the others. So, that kind of thing. I don't know how to do—Things like that, we don't know how or why those things occurs. 60 13:45.000 --> 13:47.000 Yeah. 61 13:47.000 --> 14:08.000 I hadn't even thought about that. I mean, I knew it, but—Anyways, so some of us just got together, and we just said, "Hey, let's watch this thing." And we just went on, and did something about it. And I noticed, when I started being on the honor roll, I noticed that the ones in A class began to talk to me. Treat me like— 62 14:08.000 --> 14:08.000 They felt that they were superior— 63 14:08.000 --> 14:08.000 Yes. 64 14:08.000 --> 14:08.000 —not only because of their family position, but grades and everything like that. They felt superior to the other people— 65 14:08.000 --> 14:21.000 Yes. 66 14:21.000 --> 14:22.000 —that's why they kind of separated themselves from—and the teachers, I guess, encouraged that. 67 14:22.000 --> 14:24.000 Yeah, exactly. 68 14:24.000 --> 14:30.000 Did the parents account the same thing, too? 69 14:30.000 --> 14:33.000 I think so. Yeah. I think— 70 14:33.000 --> 14:33.000 I never knew that kind of thing. 71 14:33.000 --> 14:40.000 Oh, yeah. 72 14:40.000 --> 14:47.000 I knew people—When I was going to school, you would be separated according to your grades [crosstalk 00:14:44]. 73 14:47.000 --> 15:05.000 And some these same questions, you need to ask some other people, just to see what they say. You just need to see what they say, away from me, from themselves. Just see what they say how they feel about different things. Matter of fact, a lot of questions you're asking me, I'm sure a lot of people will be telling you, probably, similar that story. 74 15:05.000 --> 15:25.000 But anyways, we're talking about community things. Even within the community, people—It was kind of like that. If your mother—Now, my mother runs a juke joint. Although she ran this juke joint, a lot of people look at me as I was better than they were. 75 15:25.000 --> 15:25.000 Right, right. 76 15:25.000 --> 15:28.000 They did. And thought I had more than they did. 77 15:28.000 --> 15:32.000 And so, you— 78 15:32.000 --> 15:40.000 It's exact. And even right now. And see, this is where the respect comes from. And it's not that I feel that way, it's just that people look at you that way. 79 15:40.000 --> 15:42.000 Oh, right. 80 15:42.000 --> 16:32.000 And put you in that category, too. And that could be for these grade things. Even right now, people respect me; a whole lot of my community. Because, first of all, I'm a people's-person, and I talk to the young, to the old. And I don't care where they live, I don't care how they live. I will stop by, and I will say, "Hello!" And I would be involved. If anything comes up, and I know my older people, who cannot get places, I will call them on the phone and say, "Hey look, such-and-such program is happening. I think that it might be a program, that you may be interested in. Here's how you can go about doing it, or come down, or go down, or call down. Or they're serving some free something, or they're giving out some voucher, you may be eligible for such and such." I'll call them on the phone, and tell them, "Follow it up." Or I'll call for it. I'll call, and get back. 81 16:32.000 --> 17:05.000 And I do that, all the time, with people. And right now, they look up to me as if, "Hey, Earnestine is really a leader, because she keeps us abreast. She informs us, and she really hangs in there." And I had a lady just call me last, and told me the same identical. She said, "One thing I can say about you, girl." She says, "You have a lot of your Mom and Dad in you." She said, "I don't care what happened. You will call to find out if I hear about something." And she said, "I like you to do that, because if you didn't call me, I would've never known." 82 17:05.000 --> 17:06.000 Mm-hmm. 83 17:06.000 --> 17:09.000 And they respect me, in that way. 84 17:09.000 --> 17:09.000 Sure. 85 17:09.000 --> 17:14.000 But I don't belittle none of them, because I'm there when they need me, and they're there for me. 86 17:14.000 --> 17:20.000 Oh, are you considered a community leader? 87 17:20.000 --> 17:23.000 Yeah, I am. I am. I am. So, those are kinds of things that has changed. 88 17:23.000 --> 17:31.000 Okay, thank you so much for the interview.