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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

High Noon: Fed Up With Racism

I was born in Chicago, a town with its own long history of racial tension, and my parents were hillbillies, one from Texas and one from Tennessee. It would not be surprising to many to learn that my upbringing was steeped in racism, yet it wasn’t—somehow my parents managed to raise their children to be almost color blind. When my little ‘sister’ Chrissie went to kindergarten, she came home quite irate, asking “Why didn’t you ever tell me that black people were different than us?,”—a  ‘knowledge’ that had apparently been shared with her by either her teachers or her classmates/Trish Gannon, River Journal (Politically Incorrect column). More here. (River Journal photo of Trish's niece & nephew)

DFO: I was delighted during my recent vacation to California to meet my two Ethiopian nieces, Marte & Buzai, for the first time since their adoption by my nephew Josh and his wife, Heather. I guess this means my full-blooded Portuguese family is wonderfully integrated now.

Question: Were you raised color-blind?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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