[ChipWrecked]

My dad was a racist. I remember him telling me during George Wallace's campaign that he had no problem with Wallace wanting to send 'the [censored] back to Africa' in principle. It could never work, dad said, because there were too many of them now; and they were Americans. "They couldn't any more survive in Africa then you or I could. But I like the idea."

We lived in the lily-white Arkansas Ozarks then. There probably wasn't a black person within a hundred mile radius of us. There was plenty of racial hate around though, of people most of the locals had never met.

When I was a senior in high school, our basketball team was pretty good. It looked like we were headed to State. Our coaches got us a Saturday game with one of the 'black teams' further south so we'd have some exposure before the tournament. The game went off well, though we felt way out of our element being the only white people in the gym. Lord only knows what those kids thought of us.

We did make it to the state tournament. Our school had trouble finding accommodations for us. Our principal sat the team down and explained that he finally got so desperate that he told a motel manager "I don't know what else to say, except that they're all white."
"Well, why didn't you say so? Of course they can stay here."
The principal said he hated to pull that card, but he didn't know what else to do. He warned us not to 'show our asses' at the motel.

When I got to the University of Arkansas, I was pretty country. In the country, you greet everyone you see, even on the highway. I was saying hello to people I met on the sidewalk... the white kids never answered. Only the black students did. That was how I learned to say 'Sup'. Several of my first college friends were black students. I never told dad.

Now I live in California and have a three year old daughter. I see now that it's true: kids don't see race. That's something they're taught. My daughter plays with any kid she meets. She never uses skin color to describe a kid; she goes by clothes.

I'm doing everything I can to make sure she stays blind to skin tone as long as possible. It's just another part of the world I want to protect her from as long as possible.



Great post Myrtle. Thanks.