Friday, September 20, 2019

Faces

I'm an almost 60 year old white man, born into the heart of the Jim Crow south. I've lived within the bounds of the confederacy all my life but for 7 years, and those were spent in a still wildly racist border state, in a county that retained unwritten Sundown Rules into (at least) the last decade of the 20th century. I had one set of grandparents who never quite mastered saying "Negro" at the time that that was the preferred term. I attended a high school that was created by building a walking bridge over the street that had separated (but unequalled) the town's black and white high schools, just a very few years before I got there, by court order, of course.
I retain a cracker accent, despite of my best efforts.
And yet, I've somehow managed to never, ever dress up in blackface, brownface, or any other face than my own.
Never.
Not once.
At any age.
Just sayin'.