Reply #1: Very interesting!

[xynthee]

I grew up in rural AR and there were no African-Americans in the entire county where I lived. I spent my early life (ages 0-18) not knowing a single African-American!! Amazingly and inexplicably, both my Mom and Dad were "radicals" who taught me (according to some of my earliest memories) that "I don't EVER want to hear you use the N-word!! We would be SOOOOO disappointed in you." (this is absolutely revolutionary, by the way; even "non-racists" used the N-word then (and now, too, probably.))

Later in life, I asked them both how they came to be Not Racist. It turns out that my Dad picked it up from his Mom and my Mom picked it up from her Dad. Where my grandparents got the radical idea it was not acceptable to consider inferior / persecute / hate people they'd never met I'll probably never know. Oh, how I wish I'd picked their brains while they were alive!!!!! :cry: