Jan Williams
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Jan Williams commented on When Did You Become Conscious of Race? on October 22, 2009, 2:17 PM
I was raised in the South by my paternal grandparents, in the early '50s. Segregation was a fact of life and black people lived in their own part of town. Ironically, the musical icons of that era were Nat King Cole, Jackie Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, along with Frankie Laine, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman...just to name a few. My 1st true awareness of race was when our maid was not allowed to eat at our table. I asked why she couldn't sit with us, to the chagrin of my grandmother. It was then I felt the sting of shame. As I got older, I realized that they were the product of their own parents' idealogy. My generation saw the biggest challenges of change and witnessed the brutality of entrenched beliefs. Years later, in my 50s, I would again become aware of race as I experienced my own "invisibility" to people of color. Love in its highest form sees no color. We would do well to consider ourselves members of the "human" race.