Racism in Small Town Tennessee

My fiancee and I both grew up in small towns within the same county in east Tennessee. It was a nice place to grow up. Everybody knows each other, traffic is light and taxes are low. Those are all good things but let's face it there are still a lot of racist rednecks running around in that area. My parents put our wedding announcement in the county paper. There happy for me and they want everyone to know about this milestone in my life. However, it did cause a bit of a stir in her home town because of the biracial nature of our relationship. Her father has taken the brunt of it. He used to be a local politician. and that alone is enough to have enemies. However, his time in office was marred with scandal and a lengthy court battle. In the end he was found not to be responsible for the things that he was being accused of and it was dropped legally. Unfortunately a few of his constituents don't see things that way and they take every chance they get to cause him grief. There is this one guy in particular that is always bothering him and has now taken my impending nuptials as an opportunity to take pot shots him. He has been prank calling his home and also leaving messages wishing him many grandchildren(read between the lines). This of course infuriates her dad. It's one thing to have some idiot bothering you all the time but to use ones children as ammunition is salt in the wound. Others just make little remarks in passing like "it's all over now" whatever the hell that means. I advised him first and foremost that these people aren't worth going to jail over. So don't do anything crazy. Also, to blow as much sunshine up there butts as he could stomach. Tell them that he was extremely happy with the situation. Take their power away. It does make any since to continue doing something that isn't working.

Although her father has been nothing but nice and accepting to me I know that our relationship hasn't been easy on him. After all he was raised by the same man that told Kim that she had better not ever bring home a black man or he would disown her. Our relationship goes against what he was taught as a boy. With that said you have to respect a man who can change his way of thinking and walk his daughter down the isle and give her to a black man. I doubt the people bothering him would show the same loyalty in the same situation. I hope this whole situation has made him look back and think about some of the things he may have said or done in his life as it relates to dealing with other cultures. I think we all could stand to do that.