Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 April 1995 — Page 7

Muncie Times Thursday, April 6,1995 Page 7

Boyd (Continued from page 5) figure out why. I asked him why I’m not getting a job. He told me, ‘I was waiting to see if you’d come and ask for one.’ I was upset. It’s not for me to ask for a job. He’s the supervisor,” said Boyd. Boyd was in the Marines for 2 years and 8 months. He served in the Vietnam War for over one year. Boyd said he has not seen one movie about Vietnam that portrays the conflict realistically. The movies are just Hollywood. In World War I and World War II there were front lines. In Vietnam there were no front lines. Soldiers were dropped out in the middle of an area and had to fight outward, he said. Boyd sums up his feelings of Vietnam as “confused, scared, and nervous. “When we arrived we spent 30 days on the ship. We had no weapons. “It was weird. Soldiers cut off enemy ears and fingers for souvenirs. I can understand why some guys are still messed up.” This is why Boyd doesn’t attend Vietnam veteran gatherings. He feels people should put Vietnam behind them and move on. When Boyd returned home he did not feel any resentment from fellow Americans. One thing that bothers Boyd is being called a baby killer. “The Viet Cong lived differently. They don't look a. life as we do. They would booby trap a kid with exMsives. What are you supl /.'.ed to do? Risk killing the whole group? That doesn’t mean you are a baby killer,” said Boyd. Boyd was shot in the head. He stayed in a hospi-

tal for 4 weeks and than was placed on light duty. He received a Purple Heart. In the last few years young people have come up to him and told him “thank you” upon seeing the Purple Heart license plate, Boyd said. After leaving Vietnam, Boyd became a military policeman in Oceanside, Calif. There he met his wife, Rebecca. The two courted for about 6 months before they got married. During their 26-year marriage they produced three children: Monica 25, of Anderson; Lionel 24, of Escondido, Calif.; Heather Evans 20, of Augusta, Ga., whose Army husband is Travis Evans. The Boyds also have three granddaughters: Kachiri, Trebecca and Diamond. Like many couples the Boyds experienced marital problems, but their problems were from outside, Jonathan is black, while Rebecca is white. “Marriage is hard anyway, but when you bring other elements into it, it makes it even harder,” said Rebecca. Rebecca’s mother and sisters did not find the interracial relationship difficult to accept. But her father did not accept it. Rebecca could not understand why. Her father is from Australia. Her grandfather would not accept Boyd either. While in Ocenaside, Boyd helped police apprehend a man shooting at a car. He talked the man into throwing his weapon down. Boyd received a merit award for that. The Oceanside police Department offered him a job but Boyd turned it down because he figured he would be better at home. Within one week after returning Boyd had a job at Chevy, thanks to people he

knew while growing up. But his family was a little less accepting of the relationship than Rebecca’s. Most of the family seemed a little apprehensive at first said Boyd. Rebecca recalls Jonathan’s grandmother putting her at ease and making her feel at home. “She took and gave me the biggest hug, and she said, ‘You married my grandson and I love you,”’ said Rebecca. The couple talked about the difficulties of interracial relationships before they got married, said Rebecca. They had $250 to start off with. They had nothing for the household. Rebecca said she always knew that everything would work out with Jonathan. “I knew when I first saw him walking (everything was going to be okay). He had such a proud walk,” said Rebecca. Estella Williams, Boyd’s mother, said she always knew he would be productive. She describes her son as being aggressive, ambitious, responsible and particular. “He was always an aggressive kid,” said Williams. “He was dependable and responsible even as a small child. Whatever he was asked to do he would do, and try to do the best he could. He wasn’t like other kids who wanted to get out of things. “I didn’t have to stand over him. He never wanted to be just like everybody else. He was a leader. He has always been a fatherly type person.” Coming to Muncie was different fro Rebecca because California was not segregated. “It was such a shock. His mom came and took me to the grocery store,” she said. “I’m getting all these damn

looks. I turned to momma and asked was there something wrong with what I had on. She told me ‘You’re in the South now.’ I couldn’t believe this. People never stared in California.” Jonathan and Rebecca encountered trouble from the hospital during the delivery of their daughters. Rebecca’s doctor referred her to a pediatrician. After a long labor, with Monica, the doctor came in, asked her name twice and walked out of the room. He never returned. When it was time for them to be released from the hospital, the baby couldn’t leave because she had not been checked by a doctor. “I got hysterical and called Jonathan,” said Rebecca. Jonathan had to go to the doctor’s office and make him come and check the baby. “He had to walk the halls to protect us. Heather was bom in 1974. Jonathan and I were looking at her through the nursery window and a nurse yanked the baby away from the window. Jonathan went back into the nursery and told her not to take the baby until he gets ready.” Boyd tries to encourage all African American employees at New Venture Gear to take the apprentice test. “Go leam a trade and become a skilled person. You’ll always get a job and it pays good. There’s a shortage in skilled trades people and—that spells money.” In Muncie there have been several shootings among African Americans in recent weeks. Boyd feels drags and guns are a good way for white people to get rid of blacks. “A lot of rich whites

don’t even care about a poor white person or family, let alone us. They decided to let us kill ourselves,” he said. ‘There’s a liquor store in every black neighborhood,” said Rebecca. “They don’t care until it gets in the rural neighborhood. Something should have been done in Muncie a long time ago. It should not have taken all this to escalate before the police did something. Now all of a sudden Mayor David Dominick is concerned.” Boyd also thinks African Americans need to start thinking more about economics and how to own and control more things. “We’re still in bondage. People are afraid to make that move out of the rat race and control it. Take a white man and a black man making the same amount of money. The black man will buy a Caddie and a raggedy house. A white man would buy a nice house and a Pinto. “We don’t look ahead. Blacks don’t see the economic value of the house. The Cadillac value drops $2,000 after it leaves the lot. When I first got married I could’ve bought a house and paid if off quickly, and it would have been cheaper. We don’t think like that. There’s a fear in our people. We need to stomp it out.” Being married to a white woman, Boyd often hears the phrase “sellout” or someone tells him he forgot where he came from. Boyd doesn’t let these comments bother him. “It is amazing that people believe you forget about your race when you marry someone out of it. You can only be what you are. You can polish yourself and everything, but you're still only What you are, he said. ❖