Aww, angry black woman besties! We should get matching shirts in the color of righteous indignation. Maybe put out a monthly newsletter accompanied by a mixtape. Thanks so much for your kind words, and remember: you is kind, you is smart, you is important. Go on girl!

Only years later, when I became aware of the Racial divisions in the world I lived in did I wonder about her life and ask questions. My Mother said that Margaret had a college education and that she was married." She was just like one of the family." she said which did prompt me to ask why she never sat with us for meals{ And I also remember a story about her going into Philadelphia to catch a bus which left from the Statler Hotel and being unable to go inside to get her ticket. I think my Mother thought that a good thing..that she was smart enough to know her place}
I also made friends with a little black girl who lived behind our school and ond day I brought her home for lunch. My Mother forever told the story of Margaret walking into the Kitchen with a huge smile on her face and exclaiming.." Come see, Mrs ________, we've got the Emancipation Proclamation right at the Kitchen Table"!

All this to say…perhaps some of us who had "Help" in our homes learned valuable life lessons. Would I have grown up to be such a color blind person if I had not learned to love Margaret as a human being before someone came along and pointed out our differences? Would I, in turn, have produced children who do not even see one's color or sexual orientation? Perhaps the seeds are planted with something as simple as a strong black woman, holding a little red-headed white girl in her lap until she falls asleep….or a black man driving an old Jewish woman to the Piggly Wiggly.