Wednesday, July 5, 2017

The N word

The N word and me. New Orleans, 1952.
A nigger baby was a 3 foot high cast iron cone with a ball on top, used to prevent cars from driving into a drainage ditch that ran along the banquette.
Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, catch a nigger by the toe.
Brazil nut=nigger toe.
These were all part of the common language of white children at play in the days of segregation.
The black man and me, New Orleans, 1952.
My great grandmother ran a rooming house in the Garden District, where I spend many weekends. Across from her, in a former slave dwelling, live Emile Forest, a black gentleman and gentle man. He and I worked together emptying slop jars, cleaning bathrooms and doing assorted chores. If he found a penny, he turned it in. If I found a penny, I was rewarded with, “You’re as honest as Forest.”
I never heard him referred to with the N word.
8 years old. New Orleans, 1952.

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