“The main item that every Southerner should have with their meal,” my aunt said to me as she was making dinner, “is thick, dark molasses or corn syrup.”
Actually, the molasses she was pouring was a disgusting dirty gray and not at all pleasing to the eye. She poured the gooey substance from a mason jar onto the chicken and brought the remaining jar to the table for the rest of the family to share. I watched my oldest girl cousin ladle the molasses onto her mashed potatoes and greens then scarf them down. I personally wasn’t one to eat something that looked like snot.
Throughout the week I experienced some of the things that impacted my life greatly.
Racism is as thick as the heat in the South. It’s not as obvious as some would think it would be, but the tension is still present. For example, my cousin Sharee goes to a school with two proms; one prom for African Americans and other minorities, and another prom for whites. This shocked me, because to me, this is a form of segregation. I couldn’t believe that something like this would still go on. This situation was a big deal for my cousin because she is African American and her boyfriend is white. She would tell me that just walking down the street while holding his hand was extremely difficult. They received so many hateful stares that made them uncomfortable and uneasy.
On the third day I was there there, I figured I would help my aunt out with the chores and go grocery shopping for her. I walked down to this mom-and-pop store called Joe’s Grocery where my aunt normally bought her eggs, milk and vegetables. It was scorching hot outside, around 93 degrees which feels like 103 degrees due to the extra thick humidity. Mosquitoes and dragonflies the size of my head filled the air.
Right before I walked into the store, a group of white girls about my age called to me. “Hey!” one said. I ignored her because I didn’t think she was talking to me. Then she grabbed my arm and calmly and quietly said, “I was talking to you, nigger.” I was shocked and my mouth was agape. Once I snapped back into reality, I pushed her off me and hit her right in her face. I was so angry that I just lost it and I didn’t know what came over me. Her friends started to yell and scream to encourage her. She attempted to choke me, but by that time Joe came out of his store and pulled her off of me. I had my first fight that day and it was all from one little word with so much power behind it