I grew up in a white world. My suburban neighborhood was lily white, the schools I went to were a monochrome of whiteness. Even the small liberal arts college I went to in Ohio had very few people of color and I was woefully unaware of their presence. It was not till I went to live in NYC as a young adult that I had any contact or relationships with people of color.
Growing up in NJ, there was not any overt atmosphere of racism. But……it was there. It was there, in my parents’ purposeful move to a town with “good” schools. It was there in the “negro” neighborhoods of a neighboring town. It was there under everyone’s breath, in their denial and in their attempt to be color blind. This is what I learned by osmosis...