| Excerpt from, Family is A Promise
I can remember going to the supermarket with my Grandmother Nora in Long Island when I was little. I had to be about three or four at the time. We got out of the car, she got a cart and we went to the entrance to the store. She had me in the front of the shopping cart and was saying something to me when this older white woman who was walking next to her looked over at her, looked over to me and looked back to her with a smile. "What a beautiful little girl your watching. Which family do you babysitting for?" The white woman asked. My Grandmother simply replied, “She’s my Motherfucking grandchild bitch,” and kept walking into the store. I didn't get to see or hear a response from the woman. That was her response to a lot of the comments in Hempstead where she lived. Just to curse the white folks out and be on her way. Of course they assumed that because she was an older black woman, “watching” a light skinned baby, that she was babysitting me for some light skinned family. If I had been darker, they wouldn’t have assumed that? More importantly, if they paid attention to my features and to hers, would they have seen that we were related? Perhaps. Yes, I look like my father, but a lot of my Grandmother is in me as well. A lot of her smile, a lot of her hips and the way she walked, a lot of her temper. After all, I am get grandchild.... |
| Family is A Promise is a collection of stories from my life and the lives around me. I hope to have it nearing publication as a full length book in the end of 2009. Stay tuned. |
| Articles/Political Writing |
| Excerpts from Novels |
| Writing |