Hope springs eternal
I had two very different grandmothers. One of them adopted a child, my aunt, who was mixed-race / dual heritage / whatever white/Afro-Caribbean, the other was an ardent Tory slightly to the right of Enoch Powell.

The older I got, the more I found the right-wing grandmother's view of the world abhorrent. She and my grandfather had friends in South Africa, this in the 70s / 80s, and of course shared their views about the Blacks having come down from the trees. Lovely to hear when my aunt (who was only 3 years older than me) was one of those 'savages'.

However, one day, I realised that Tory gran's view of the world was gradually changing. She had been on holiday to Mexico, where a lot of the fellow-tourists came from the US of A. "We met this wonderful family on holiday who were American" she said, "their children were so well behaved, we told them, if you ever come to the UK, you must look us up. He's Chief of the Fire department apparently - and look, he's sent us a photo of himself in uniform".

And she proudly showed me a photo of said Merkin, who as you can probably guess, was black.

Finally, after years of arguments and strife, there was a moment where I could be proud of her.

It's easy to forgive racism on grounds of ignorance and lack of exposure to different cultures - it was great to see that once that exposure was gained, she could change her viewpoint; if not entirely, at least at that moment she could judge someone on who they were, not what colour their skin was.

Apologies for mushiness.
(TheImmortalJenkins, Fri 28 Oct 2011, 18:32, 5 replies)

This isn't even slightly offensive.
Try harder.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 28 Oct 2011, 18:58, closed)

He probably stole the uniform

(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Sat 29 Oct 2011, 14:18, closed)

How do you expect the qotw regulars to get upset at this?

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Fri 28 Oct 2011, 20:00, closed)

So your story is...
Your gran likes it south of the border & she met a Fire Chief?
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Fri 28 Oct 2011, 23:09, closed)

So, if the blacks came down out of the trees
Where did the whiteys come from then?
(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Sat 29 Oct 2011, 0:54, closed)