"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto...."

 When I was in college in Kentucky, I dated a young lady from Hendersonville for a time.  During Spring Break, I stayed with her and her mom and was "invited" to join them at church.  Hey, I was not just a northern boy, I was Jewish.  I'd never been to a Baptist church, let alone one south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  

It was ...interesting.

When we left, we climbed into her mom's car and drove around the corner -- and there it was.  The same church.  I mean, brick-for-brick, the facade, even the sermon listed on the church sign, a doppleganger.  I asked my girlfriend why there were two identical churches on the same block, and she explained that was the Black church.  We had been at the White church.  

"We built that for them so they'd be more comfortable among their own kind."

She said this without a wisp of irony.  So that "they" would be more comfortable.   Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.  It took her a few minutes to ask why I was staring at her, speechless.  


I think I grew up more than a little bit that day.

Share your first shocking experience with the racism of your youth!!

          AlextheKay still hasn't gotten over it.          

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