Bill Taylor,
Middleton, WI
My seven words express what our children have said to us. My wife and I are white, around 79 years old, grew up in a 50/50 white/black town (South Hill) in Virginia, with separate school systems. As we were childless (endometreosis) we later adopted three children, one white (11 years after marriage), two black (14 years). When they were still young we stayed with a Mennonite Your Way host family in northern Indiana on our way home to Wisconsin. The family was all blond and blue eyed, parents and children. Wonderful hosts! But … as we were driving west the next morning I had a nagging and growing feeling about them that eventually became a conscious thought: At first it was that there was something odd about their family, That morphed into the realization that I now felt and thought that we were “normal” because we did not look like each other, and they were “abnormal”. I read your Hidden Conversations first to myself, then out loud to Dian. There were more than a few times I grieved and cried at the treatment many have received. Thank you for what you have done.
