“Dear Niece, Your Grandmother asked me to speak to you about some questions you have been asking. I…”

Dear Niece, Your Grandmother asked me to speak to you about some questions you have been asking. I hope I can help. I remember when you were 6, you put your arm next to mine and wanted to know why you were so much darker than me. I think I said something like, "It's just the way God made us, and we're all the same inside." You accepted that, and went out to play, you're a bit older now, and seeing things with a young woman's eyes rather than a child's. The truth is that I'm over 60 now, and the older I get, the more I believe that everything is about race in our country. If you were living with your birth parents, this is about the time someone would have given you "the talk," but you're going to have to find your own way on a lot of this. Keep in mind, a fight broke out in a store I worked at. Six guys were brawling, and myself and two others were trying to break it up. We had things under control by the time the police got there. One person was put in handcuffs, the only black person involved, my employee. It took me almost getting arrested myself to get them to release him, they just didn't want to believe that he didn't start things. I was outraged and sad all at once. This is what you will have to deal with. So, yes, it is alright tot protest at your age. Tell me where to be and I'll walk beside you. Proud of you!! R