Mississippi Burning1988

Ward:
Where does it come from, all this hatred?

Anderson:
You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old Negro farmer lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was, uh, - well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my Daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. Now, my Daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kiddin' him about oh, they saw Monroe out plowin' with his new mule, and Monroe was gonna rent another field now they had a mule. And one morning that mule just showed up dead. They poisoned the water. And after that there was never any mention about that mule around my Daddy. It just never came up. So one time, we were drivin' down the road and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He'd just packed up and left, I guess. Gone up North, or somethin'. I looked over at my Daddy's face - and I knew he'd done it. And he saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and he said: 'If you ain't better than a n*gger, son, who are you better than?'

Ward:
And you think that's an excuse?

Anderson:
No, it's not an excuse, it's just a story about my daddy.

Ward:
Where's that leave you?

Anderson:
With an old man who was just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killin' him.