Member-only story
There’s a N*gger in the Woodpile — Me!
My Uncomfortable Relationship With a Common Phrase
Girl, you know there’s a n*gger in the woodpile somewhere…
We’ve all heard it back in the day. I was raised to think it meant a person appeared to be mixed-race.
I never really thought much about its impact or origin. Not until I read William Spivey’s story.
As a white-presenting, mixed-race child adopted into the entirely Black home of her paternal uncle and aunt, I heard the phrase almost daily.
Sometimes, it was a casual comment. My mother, mixed race herself (Black and Mi’kmaq First Nation), took great pride in spotting “passers.” If someone had a mixed drop of blood in them, she sniffed it out like a bloodhound and sounded the alarm.
It was Winnie’s superpower, and she used it gleefully.
“Hmmm, hmmm, seems to me there’s a n*gger in the woodpile somewhere.”
