I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA in the 60's and 70's. In my high school of 1500 kids, there were 3 Black students. When I got a job, I worked in another part of town where there were more Black people and they were also my co-workers and supervisors. Coming from a family where my dad's side of the family were outright racist, I, thankfully, didn't pick up that horrible trait. We were at dinner one night, I was probably around 10 or so, and my grandmother used the N word, loud enough for the Black family that was sitting near us to hear. I was instantly mortified. I looked over at the family, and the father smiled at me. I smiled back and had a feeling that he saw in my face that I knew my grandmother was wrong. I was always told which parts of town not to go to because they were "dangerous". I think of the people I missed out on meeting because of that stupid, racist rule. I am learning things now, at the age of 63, about our country's real history, that was never taught in school. I'm not necessarily ashamed of my lack of knowledge, we only know what we're taught, but, I am ashamed of our country as a whole, for allowing generations of us to be taught a literal white-washed version of our country. The only reason I can think of for doing this is, accountability, or lack thereof. In the history I was taught, white men were always the heroes and anyone different than that, wasn't. How sad that we were denied our true story. How much better would we be today, had we been told the truth, and learned to appreciate the diversity instead of being taught to fear it. As long as we're alive, there's an opportunity to learn new things and to do better with that new information. Here's hoping there's enough of us willing to do that.
Looking forward to this book. I grew up in a suburb of Flint, MI with no African Americans in my town/school. We prided ourselves though on not being racist as we had one Mexican American family. People could live there as long as they worked hard enough. The blacks just didn’t want to live there...The things we didn’t know and weren’t taught are astonishing. I have spent the past year and a half reading and learning and trying to figure out at 65 what to do with what I am learning. I do I get those who I grew up with to acknowledge this history that they really do not want to hear?
I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA in the 60's and 70's. In my high school of 1500 kids, there were 3 Black students. When I got a job, I worked in another part of town where there were more Black people and they were also my co-workers and supervisors. Coming from a family where my dad's side of the family were outright racist, I, thankfully, didn't pick up that horrible trait. We were at dinner one night, I was probably around 10 or so, and my grandmother used the N word, loud enough for the Black family that was sitting near us to hear. I was instantly mortified. I looked over at the family, and the father smiled at me. I smiled back and had a feeling that he saw in my face that I knew my grandmother was wrong. I was always told which parts of town not to go to because they were "dangerous". I think of the people I missed out on meeting because of that stupid, racist rule. I am learning things now, at the age of 63, about our country's real history, that was never taught in school. I'm not necessarily ashamed of my lack of knowledge, we only know what we're taught, but, I am ashamed of our country as a whole, for allowing generations of us to be taught a literal white-washed version of our country. The only reason I can think of for doing this is, accountability, or lack thereof. In the history I was taught, white men were always the heroes and anyone different than that, wasn't. How sad that we were denied our true story. How much better would we be today, had we been told the truth, and learned to appreciate the diversity instead of being taught to fear it. As long as we're alive, there's an opportunity to learn new things and to do better with that new information. Here's hoping there's enough of us willing to do that.
I have just started reading this.
Thanks for the excellent book review and recommendation. It wasn't on my reading list because I didn't know about it. Now I do and it is.
Looking forward to this book. I grew up in a suburb of Flint, MI with no African Americans in my town/school. We prided ourselves though on not being racist as we had one Mexican American family. People could live there as long as they worked hard enough. The blacks just didn’t want to live there...The things we didn’t know and weren’t taught are astonishing. I have spent the past year and a half reading and learning and trying to figure out at 65 what to do with what I am learning. I do I get those who I grew up with to acknowledge this history that they really do not want to hear?