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We used to live in Third Ward, Houston, Texas, on North MacGregor, right by the bayou. One time in spring 1985, my mother was really in a mood. Somebody had told her something that pissed her off, and she was going on and on about pride in your heritage. I said something or other, I don’t remember what, and she said, “Boy! Don’t you ever forget that your people come from kings and queens of great and glorious kingdoms! Don’t you ever let anybody disrespect you!”

I took this firmly to my 11-year-old heart.

Later that summer, I was outside playing, and somebody said something about my hair, which was probably nappy. I think it was Pumpkin, this meathead cock-diesel high-yellow football-playing kid who was always trying to pick a fight with me. He had a fresh skin fade cut with a sharp part in the side, and he was fondling his natural-lacquer-finish wood natural-bristle brush, which had been specially treated with a bleach and hot water bath to make it soft so he could brush his fuzzy scalp all summer and have slick waves by the start of the school year. I never got a stylish haircut in those days, and I was kinda jealous, so I got up on my high horse. I had been thinking about what my mother said, and on the basis of my last name and what I knew about word origin, I said,

“Shut up nigger! My people were kings and queens back in Scotland!”


Posted by F. Jones on January 30, 2007 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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This page contains all entries posted to Quotidia in January 2007. They are listed from oldest to newest. November 2006 is the previous archive. February 2008 is the next archive. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.


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