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Friends of Herman Cain (Exploratory Committee)

"The water tastes the same" +
  3:01 web video from March 24, 2011.

[Music] Cain: I can remember riding the bus, reading the sign up on the front of the bus "White seat from front, Colored seat from rear."  If the bus filled up and some more whites got on the bus, the blacks that were occupying seats closest to the white passengers were supposed to get up, stand up and move to the back of the bus.

That's not only how it was; I actually experienced it.  I saw it.

Reporter on phone: Ellen told me a story about you, you and your brother...

Cain: Yes.

Reporter on phone: Something about you and your brother kept a watch out while you drank out of the white fountain. 

Cain: Yeah, true story.  We were at the bargain basement at the department store one day, and my mom was looking on the rack to find some stuff for us, and we went over to, we asked if we could go get some water.  She said, yes.  And mom specifically said, now y'all make sure you drink out of the colored fountain.

Being typical young boys, we got over there and looked at those two water fountains, and we kind of looked around, and we kind of went hmmm, nobody's looking.  And so my brother went first while I stayed on the look out, to sip the white, to sip the white water.  Then he was on the look out while I sipped the white water.  And then we both sipped the colored water.  And we looked at each other.  The water tastes the same...

Reporter: Laughs.

Cain: ...what's the big deal?  This stuff I'm not making up, man.  I can't make this stuff up.  We were never taught discrimination.  We had to live in a segregated society, but we hadn't fully grasped the significance of those public differences.  But that is a true story.  Some folk started using the terminology African American.  I never embraced that concept.  When people try to label me, I very quickly point out that I am an American first, black second, and I'm a conservative.  So I'm an ABC.

Notes: This video opens with a montage of shots establishing that Cain is in Iowa.  The device of Cain telling the story over the phone to a reporter from The Daily Caller while "somewhere on the road Iowa" is different and interesting.  Black and white images of scenes from the segregated South are interspersed.