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Black & white, Summer 1944
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BLACK & WHITE PUBLISHED BY NOVA PRESS FOR PAPA SUMMER 1944 WHEREIN JACK SPEER'S HAIR TURNS GRAY OVER NITE By Forrest J Ackerman Jack Speer, as is fairly common knowledge in fandom, is color blind. Would to Stf that he could not distinguish between white and black! But he can and does---to my great regret. My good friend Jack Speer, and I say that not sarcastically but sincerely, would, I presume, embrace and welcome as a brother a "man" from across space or time, be he 8 feet tall with green scales, tentacles and 4 eyes, or a floating brain sustained by a helium skin-sac. Any amicable conception of Paul, Bok, or Finlay, no matter how repellant a monstrosity, would be greeted and treated like a friend---like Kinnison and Worsol, for example. But Jack balks at a specimen of homo sapiens pigmented black. Jack Speer is intensely antinegro. And I have just found the first colored science fiction fan! In a recent letter, Speer ("with Liberty and Juffus for all") told me in all sobriety and apparent self-satisfaction of a heinous action. He and a white woman (sic) had to sit opposite a "boogie" in a dining car of a train. "We choked up, looked around for some place to move to, which there wasn't so had to content ourselves with making audible remarks, bolting the rest of the dinner, and getting away as soon as possible" --- and seems to have been quite proud of their conduct! Damme if I shouldn't say, "Served 'em right!" if they got indigestion. Alas for the inhumanity of man to man---unquote. "The world is full of people, and the people are full of prejudice." Such uncivil conduct I consider despicable, heartless, cruel, censurable. Bad behavior for an average individual; for a science fiction fan, an actifan, in fact, in my estimation, one of the top 10 stfans.....incredible! On our way to the Nycon, Morojo and I felt distinctly uncomfortable, embarast to be members of such a country, when we passed through a certain state wherein seats in the coaches were partitioned temporarily and markt "For Colored Only". We resented this, we did not like to think any colored people were blaming us in their minds, looking at us accusingly. Beyond such personal, selfish considerations, we considered the situation fundamentally unjust. Now I personally do not relish the company of negroes, I admit
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BLACK & WHITE PUBLISHED BY NOVA PRESS FOR PAPA SUMMER 1944 WHEREIN JACK SPEER'S HAIR TURNS GRAY OVER NITE By Forrest J Ackerman Jack Speer, as is fairly common knowledge in fandom, is color blind. Would to Stf that he could not distinguish between white and black! But he can and does---to my great regret. My good friend Jack Speer, and I say that not sarcastically but sincerely, would, I presume, embrace and welcome as a brother a "man" from across space or time, be he 8 feet tall with green scales, tentacles and 4 eyes, or a floating brain sustained by a helium skin-sac. Any amicable conception of Paul, Bok, or Finlay, no matter how repellant a monstrosity, would be greeted and treated like a friend---like Kinnison and Worsol, for example. But Jack balks at a specimen of homo sapiens pigmented black. Jack Speer is intensely antinegro. And I have just found the first colored science fiction fan! In a recent letter, Speer ("with Liberty and Juffus for all") told me in all sobriety and apparent self-satisfaction of a heinous action. He and a white woman (sic) had to sit opposite a "boogie" in a dining car of a train. "We choked up, looked around for some place to move to, which there wasn't so had to content ourselves with making audible remarks, bolting the rest of the dinner, and getting away as soon as possible" --- and seems to have been quite proud of their conduct! Damme if I shouldn't say, "Served 'em right!" if they got indigestion. Alas for the inhumanity of man to man---unquote. "The world is full of people, and the people are full of prejudice." Such uncivil conduct I consider despicable, heartless, cruel, censurable. Bad behavior for an average individual; for a science fiction fan, an actifan, in fact, in my estimation, one of the top 10 stfans.....incredible! On our way to the Nycon, Morojo and I felt distinctly uncomfortable, embarast to be members of such a country, when we passed through a certain state wherein seats in the coaches were partitioned temporarily and markt "For Colored Only". We resented this, we did not like to think any colored people were blaming us in their minds, looking at us accusingly. Beyond such personal, selfish considerations, we considered the situation fundamentally unjust. Now I personally do not relish the company of negroes, I admit
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