My Blog

Jenny Miller

Section 57

12-10-07

Comparison and Contrast

My Grandma

            Have you ever been so frustrated with a judgmental person that you just want to scream at them?  I have a loved one who just doesn’t understand how far the world has come with racial discrimination and prejudice.  My grandmother and I hold extremely different views of the race issue.

            My grandmother doesn’t feel that whites and blacks should be associated with each other.  She is perfectly content with the races living their separate lives.  For example, my cousin, or her granddaughter, is currently dating a black guy.   They have known each other for a very long time and are in a serious relationship.  In fact, they are thinking about planning a wedding sometime in the near future.  My grandma, coming from a traditional American family, doesn’t exactly like the idea of a black man joining our family.  Secondly, whenever she speaks of black people in a conversation, she makes sure to emphasize the fact that they are black, as if she is trying to degrade them.  Lastly, she laughs at people when they don’t have a problem with whites and blacks together.  I can’t even count how many times she has asked me what I think of my cousin’s boyfriend.  Every time, I say that I really like him, that he’s a really nice guy, and that he is a good fit for my cousin.  Then, my grandma just gives me this long-lasting smirk and finally begins to laugh at me.  She never says anything to my response.  It’s just the laughter that gets to me.  Even when I ask her why she thinks it’s funny, she replies with a mumble.

            I, on the other hand, don’t have a problem with any race.  First of all, I fully support my cousin and the man that she has fallen in love with.  I honestly don’t understand the big deal about race when a person really loves someone else and they want to spend the rest of their life with them.  To me, race is just a color.  Just like everyone has a different color of hair, everyone has a different color of skin.  Secondly, I feel that it is terrible that racism still exists in today’s world.  I also wish that more discrimination had been eliminated in the world by this time.  I don’t think that my grandmother feels that way at all, and it makes me sad to see that someone can still feel the way she does.

            I do see some reasons why my grandma could think the way she does about race.  First of all, she grew up seventy years before I did.  There is a huge difference in how society has changed over that amount of time.  She was raised when it was absolutely unthinkable for a white to marry a black.  Now, it is a common act between many couples.  It must be very hard to change her mindset that she grew up with.  Secondly, she has never personally experienced a race issue in her own family.  Of course she has heard of how much the racial world has changed, but I believe it was a shock to her when she realized it was taking place in her own family.

            The opinions of my grandma and myself are very different when it comes to race.  I don’t think that my grandma wants to believe that it is okay to be associated with other races, especially blacks.  I always feel saddened and frustrated at how my grandmother acts and talks about other races.