Thank you so much for taking the interest! I appreciate a lot - no, I certainly don't mind.
Your background sounds fascinating! Even within my extended family, there are nasty comments and cold-shouldering - even though in northern Brazil, "white" and "black" don't necessarily have the same meaning! It's a class distinction in some ways. Mom is considered "white" in her home city because she's on the lighter side of the spectrum there, but not here (in northern Brazil, it's a continuum, like the Kinsey Scale, not an either/or). Her family had money at one point - imagine her shock when she came to the US as a college exchange student with full scholarship, speaking two languages already, and had a host family who were disappointed when she didn't react with noble-savage awe at TV and flush toilets!
My dad's family did not take it well. Even the ones who acted OK about it later went on to make snide remarks about "spics" when my first cousin was dating a Nicaraguan guy and didn't understand when we both wanted to stop the car and walk home!
I went to the Election Night fest in Grant Park (I live in Chicago) and also the inauguration, and while everyone there was rejoicing and happy, the stars of the night were really the many elderly African-American people there in tears, who never thought they would live to see it (and remembering their loved ones who didn't, but were there in spirit). I've never seen so many hyped-up young people in a city crowd going out of their way to be courteous to the old and disabled before.
I called my mom from the events. She was in happy tears too.
It's not that I think he's perfect. Good LORD, he's not. But it does make me so happy and proud that he can go overseas - to Germany or Ghana, doesn't matter - and the people there are so glad to see him, and he always shows such sincere interest and respect for history and culture. What a contrast compared to what we had before.
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Your background sounds fascinating! Even within my extended family, there are nasty comments and cold-shouldering - even though in northern Brazil, "white" and "black" don't necessarily have the same meaning! It's a class distinction in some ways. Mom is considered "white" in her home city because she's on the lighter side of the spectrum there, but not here (in northern Brazil, it's a continuum, like the Kinsey Scale, not an either/or). Her family had money at one point - imagine her shock when she came to the US as a college exchange student with full scholarship, speaking two languages already, and had a host family who were disappointed when she didn't react with noble-savage awe at TV and flush toilets!
My dad's family did not take it well. Even the ones who acted OK about it later went on to make snide remarks about "spics" when my first cousin was dating a Nicaraguan guy and didn't understand when we both wanted to stop the car and walk home!
I went to the Election Night fest in Grant Park (I live in Chicago) and also the inauguration, and while everyone there was rejoicing and happy, the stars of the night were really the many elderly African-American people there in tears, who never thought they would live to see it (and remembering their loved ones who didn't, but were there in spirit). I've never seen so many hyped-up young people in a city crowd going out of their way to be courteous to the old and disabled before.
I called my mom from the events. She was in happy tears too.
It's not that I think he's perfect. Good LORD, he's not. But it does make me so happy and proud that he can go overseas - to Germany or Ghana, doesn't matter - and the people there are so glad to see him, and he always shows such sincere interest and respect for history and culture. What a contrast compared to what we had before.