So, this morning I called down to a church in St. George... just to check on the kid situation. One thing for sure, the LDS community is full of info! The guy I talked to told me that indeed there were NOT a lot of kids in the area, but there are enough. (Utah Valley is an anomaly - BFFs to the right and to the left.) I asked him about a basketball hoop that I had seen across the street and down two houses from my new place - I wanted to know if there were full-time kids there or just grand kids. He gave me the lowdown on that. Then he said rather quietly, "There is a black family." and then he went silent. I waited to hear the list of the colors of the other families in the area, but he didn't give. I was like "Yes, and?" Still more silence. I wondered if perhaps he wanted me to tell him MY family's color - which would be difficult cuz I didn't know I had been assigned one. I thought about saying "Orangeish Red - you know, like the color of a beautiful sunset!" But, I didn't. I just kind of sat there.
Can't remember how the rest of the conversation went after that, other than that I said good-bye. Quite frankly, my brain checked out for a bit because I was trying to remember where I was moving. Was I going back to South Carolina? Columbia, South Carolina is the first place I was ever exposed to racism - the kind we've all seen on TV. KKK marching down the road, and me having to carefully take a detour (when I really wanted to run them all down) so they could continue their march in protest of pigment. That is also the place where I was told "black people should not be allowed to go to BYU because they have a part of their brain missing, but they do have more muscles in their ankles... which make them jump higher." Ya, do NOT make me tell you who said that one to me. Suffice it to say, I was in an "interview"... uh huh!
But,then I remembered that I am moving to St. George UTAH, and I wondered why this guy felt the need to let me in on the secret - cuz I'm sure it won't be obvious to me when I meet my neighbors...me being color blind and all. I wonder if it would be good for my phone helper to know that Maggie's current best friend here in Utah County is a lil' black boy named Matthew; she is going to marry him.
Do you think it will put his well-meaning mind at ease to know that my adjustment time will be minmal?
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)