Granma and Paw-paw

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Wednesday September 19, 2012 · 7:02 AM PDT

2012/09/19 · 07:02

As I sat here watching and rewatching the Mitt Romney insulting video, it became clear to me that he was talking about me and my beloved grandparents, Granma and Paw-paw. How I loved those two moochers, and not for the reasons that Mittens gave, but because they taught me real life lessons, i.e., how to treat people, what was expected of me, how to take responsibility for myself, my family, and my home. They taught me that hard work wasn't enough. I also, as a woman, and especially as a Black woman, had to be educated, smart, and independent. I also had to know myself. I had to know how to do things that others might not want to do, or be able to do, so I had to know how myself.

Let's take a brief trip back into the past, so I can tell you about my grandparents, the moochers.

RO45

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Monday July 16, 2012 · 11:51 AM PDT

2012/07/16 · 11:51

First, I am an African American woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I am a friend, lover, cousin, sister, associate. I am a Democrat. And I love myself, and have many women friends, who I also love. Very much! Too much to continue to sit back and watch what is being done to us, as women, as a result of the policies, and politics, of the Republican Party.

We are being battered, torn asunder, beaten, and left for clinically dead by a party to whom many of my friends have sworn allegiance. Needless to say, this has brought about many love-based arguments about the rights of those who govern us to take away rights that were fought for, earned, and won, many years ago.

RO45

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Thursday September 24, 2009 · 12:14 PM PDT

2009/09/24 · 12:14

First, I want to say that I was initially responding to a diary entitled "[Updated] A Pictoral History of Racism in the United States is Everything." My response was sooooooo long that other responders suggested that I make this a diary. Second, I have written diaries before that were moderately well received, just not ever rec'd. I can live with that. DKos members are smart, meticulous, and helpful, but above all, intuitive. They know it when they see it. They know how to call it out. And most times, they do. They called me out. They made me do something that I was afraid to do again, write another diary. I had just about given up writing until I came to this place.

Follow me into the past where 20/20 vision is not always a good thing......

RO45

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Tuesday September 30, 2008 · 11:25 AM PDT

2008/09/30 · 11:25

The house diagonally across the street from me is inhabited by a 76 year old woman who has outlived three husbands, and two of her five children. She was born in Wisconsin and moved to Miami in the late '40s with her family. She was a hairdresser, then a dancer on Miami Beach, then a childcare provider, then a house painter. She can hang drywall, lay pipe, and install electricity. She is not, however, licensed to do any of these things. And in between all of this, she was a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. She has lived an interesting, if exhausting, life.

She and I have had conversations galore about numerous subjects. She reads books constantly and spoils her grandchildren from afar (her preference!). She still cooks her own meals, does her own laundry, and cleans (sometimes) her own house.

She is irrepressible....and a life-long Republican! Follow me over the fold to one of our many discussions.....

RO45

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Friday September 05, 2008 · 7:59 PM PDT

2008/09/05 · 19:59

I live in North Carolina. Today, we are preparing for Hurricane Hanna. While standing in line at a store whose name I shall not mention, I happened to overhear the conversation of two (white) women who were discussing politics. Now I don't normally eavesdrop (or at least that's what I tell my husband!), but these ladies were speaking kind of loud and I wanted them to know that they were being heard. So I turned around, looked at them, and casually asked, "So you're for McCain?" Well, the look I got was kind of like "Who the hell does she think she's talking too?" So I plowed on and asked the same question again, ignoring their looks of incredulity. The older one (sorry, girlfriend, but you did LOOK older!) said to me, "And I guess you're voting for Obama?" I said, "What would make you think that?"

Join me in line for her response......

RO45

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Thursday August 28, 2008 · 7:08 AM PDT

2008/08/28 · 07:08

As I sat with my grandchildren, my husband, my daughter and her husband, and watched history being made last night, it was almost impossible for me to keep myself from crying. Why? Because I began to think back over MY lifetime and remember when bathrooms were labeled "Black" and "white;" when water fountains were labeled "Black" and "white;" when hotels did not service "Black" people; when you couldn't use the bathroom at a gas station; when the back of the bus was where we sat; when our schools received books that white schools threw away; when hospitals were specified "white" or "colored;" when store clerks ignored us until there were no more white people in the store, then we got waited on; when our children were relegated to second-class citizenship just because they were Black; when my beloved grandfather was never "Mr.," he was either "boy" or "Uncle;" when my precious grandmother never heard herself referred to as "Mrs.;" and finally, when we couldn't sit at the lunch counter and order food nor could we try on clothes and shoes at the stores we frequented. All of this, IN MY LIFETIME!

But this is not to lament the past or blame anyone for it. This is to praise the future....come....

RO45

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Saturday August 23, 2008 · 1:59 PM PDT

2008/08/23 · 13:59

Yes, I admit it, I am afraid for Obama. I am afraid for this wonderful Black man and his family who want to take us to new heights in this country. I am afraid that those who have no other interest than not seeing a Black man in the highest office in the land will make every attempt they can to hurt him now that it appears as though this could be a reality. Yes, I am afraid for him. He offers us such positive thoughts and ideas, so much of himself, so much that we need at this time after eight years of Bush, that I cannot imagine why anyone would not want to see this happen. But I know that those who don't like it, don't want it, won't tolerate it, are making their plans. I fear for my country in a way I have not feared for it in almost 40 years. I fear that the voices of reason will be shouted down by the lunatic fringe. I fear that the gold ring we are once again being offered, won't be accepted.

Join me as I turn on the light and watch the roaches scatter......

RO45

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Friday July 25, 2008 · 8:16 AM PDT

2008/07/25 · 08:16

Last night, as my husband and I sat watching CNN's "Black in America" series, I became quite emotional during one of the segments. It was when the discussion was about Black boys in school and the low expectations set for them. All of a sudden, I was back in high school, on Chicago's West Side, listening to a teacher tell me that I did not need to go to college because I would make a much "better maid." Her suggestion was that I learn to sew, clean, cook, and take care of children. That was her only option for my life. During my four years in high school, which was not integrated at that time, I never had one single teacher tell me that I could write well, speak well, spell, complete mathmatical equations well (and if they had on that one I would have known they were lying), nothing. Meet me after the fold....

RO45

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Monday July 21, 2008 · 1:59 PM PDT

2008/07/21 · 13:59

I have been one for a number of years now, but the real significance of my status became clear to me during the summer visit of my granddaughters. I have mentioned previously that my granddaughters are multiracial, their father being Cuban-Puerto Rican and their mother (my daughter) is African-American. This summer, because of Barack Obama's presidential bid, my older grandson (age 16) and my older granddaughter (age 11 11/12, her words, not mine), had a serious discussion about the ramifications of having a multiracial President.

Meet me around the kitchen table.

RO45

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Friday June 27, 2008 · 10:57 AM PDT

2008/06/27 · 10:57

No, she did not die; although there were times when she wished death would come. She left the area. Moved away. Vamoosed. Not because it was what she wanted to do, but because it was what she had to do. You see, she is/was the wife of an abuser. Oh, he was slick with it. He was always so oily nice that it was hard for me to believe he was an abuser. He seemed to take such good care of her. Always concerned about her, always thinking of her best interest. Smiling in all the right places. Holding onto her. But when you looked at her, she was afraid and a tiny bit sad. Her eyes were always watching. Always wary. Always shifting. Always careful. Her speech was always stilted. Never hopeful. Never funny. Just always a bit sad.

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Granma and Paw-paw

SISTERS

My Memories of Being Black in White America

76 AND P***ED OFF!!!

I Saved Obama Today

Just So We Don't Forget How Far We've Come!

MY FEAR FOR OBAMA....

CNN, On Being Black, and Me

Grandmothering and Politics

I Lost A Good Friend Today