Growing Up Racist

How do we know what we can’t see?

Can we see what is right in front of us? Image: Author.

If you put a person in water and slowly turn up the heat, they will become a racist. Like the ill-fated frog, is it possible to realize when the water gets too hot?

I was born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn — a neighborhood filled with brick apartment buildings and railroad houses. The small front yards were often filled with Mary on a Half-Shell…