Charles Augustine

Charles Augustine grew up in a small town, in rural southeastern Louisiana, in midst of a pine forest, surrounded by swamps and marshlands situated right at a point where a "bayou" dumps into a lake. The same applies to the fictional town of "Toopalo" in the story. Like the main character in the Creole, Augustine too is of African American and Creole ancestry, and experienced firsthand Louisiana's "color hierarchy," as well as grew up during the implementation, emersion and post-integration...See more

Charles Augustine grew up in a small town, in rural southeastern Louisiana, in midst of a pine forest, surrounded by swamps and marshlands situated right at a point where a "bayou" dumps into a lake. The same applies to the fictional town of "Toopalo" in the story. Like the main character in the Creole, Augustine too is of African American and Creole ancestry, and experienced firsthand Louisiana's "color hierarchy," as well as grew up during the implementation, emersion and post-integration years. Because of this background Augustine believes we have made unimaginable progress in America in terms of black and white race relations. The election of Barrack Obama points this out, and because of it Augustine strongly believes at one time in integration's infancy there was a need to "level the playing field" for blacks - however black and white Americans have evolved to the point it is no longer needed. Bravo for that! He also holds dear to him the belief: it was as necessary for Americans to go through the eras of division and hatred politics as it was the "getting to know" and "loving your fellow man" experience. Why - because by Americans being allowed the liberty to hate each other they've had their fill of it and are now, of their own volition, ready to "acknowledge" and "forgive" pass wrongs and "move on," allowing them to embrace each other and better co-exist. Mr. Augustine parts ways with many African Americans on what he refers to as the "It's Because of My Race Blame Game" in that he sees it as likened to being a crutch, many African Americans resort to more of habit than actual belief, because they've been saying so often and so long. In this vein he tells the story of how two older black gentlemen schooled him in 1986: "Young bloods like you gotta pick up 'the struggle' (fighting racism) where we left off." Augustine says 20 years later he heard three older black men telling two black youth the same thing: "You young brothers need to continue the struggle..." He states: these people have been saying this for so long, if you took that away from them they'd have nothing to say. "I know people who have spend their entire existence, 24 hours a day/seven days a week, harping on and on endlessly about racism. They see racism under rocks. A woman friend of mind thinks white food servers dole out smaller food portions to blacks than whites!" See less