‘I’m not racist. . . . My grandkids are biracial’Posted in Articles, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, Social Work, United States on 2017-09-20 15:08Z by Steven |
‘I’m not racist. . . . My grandkids are biracial’
The Philadelphia Inquirer
2017-08-29
Helen Ubiñas, Staff Columnist
 istockphoto.com Having biracial grandkids doesn’t give you a free pass to say racist things. |
There was no hello. Just an angry voice on the other end of the line yelling obscenities about blacks and Latinos in North Philly. The man grew up there, he shouted, back when it used to be “a great white neighborhood.” Then “the blacks” and “the Puerto Ricans” moved in and ruined it. They’re garbage, he yelled. No, he seethed, garbage is better than them.
Oh, and before I or anyone else called him a bigot, he wanted me to know something.
He’s no racist. His grandchildren are half-Puerto Rican.
My heart sank. Poor kids…
…Family doesn’t inoculate anyone against racism.
Tanya Hernandez, professor of law at Fordham University and author of a forthcoming book, Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination, said it fits into a larger societal idea that having closer relationships with people of other races can make people more empathetic.
It’s a nice thought – especially after the post-racial fantasy we all fed on for the last eight years, and the ongoing myth that as the country’s demographics become more diverse, racism will be eradicated. But the reality can be much more complicated, and painfully personal…
Read the entire article here.