Jeanine McElwain,
Davis, CA.
“Another possibility was: What does N****r mean, Mom? (5 words)
This is a question I had as a child in the early 1960’s, growing up in an all-white, working class neighborhood where white kids used the N word to tease/insult each other. When I first heard it, I thought it was some type of animal. I didn’t fully comprehend the civil rights movement until years later, and I never even met a black person my age till the 8th grade. Although my parents always preached acceptance of all people, and I believed it intellectually, I tended to avoid black people socially and even now, sadly, sometimes have to fight my viscerally negative reaction to a black stranger on the street. I am angered by how difficult it is to expel racism from my cells, and from society.”
