White People Who Buy Black Homes?
Who are the white people who buy black-owned homes at fair market value? I need to know.
I was being suffocated by shame. My body thrashed like a fish flapping around the deck of a boat. This destructive emotion continued to apply pressure to my fragile self.
Shame is the only word that defined how I felt when I showed my daughter the home I grew up in.
My childhood home had been the site of a hard-fought cold war. The battles were fought during a time when the word integration was for other white people and not for you or your loved ones. Our family was the black fly in the cold glass of milk: impossible to ignore and, for some — revolting.
This war was waged in my neighborhood from 1977 until 1993 without a formal declaration of war. There were no burning crosses or racial slurs used to mar our home. It was barely perceptible to anyone. It was the atmosphere that betrayed the sentiments of the white neighbors toward our black family. You could feel the tension in the breeze.
There is a misnomer for people from Minnesota: Minnesota Nice. The idea is that Minnesotans are a friendly lot. They are not. What they are is polite. Their politeness conceals cruelty and pettiness.
There were many fronts to this nameless cold war, but the one that I want to focus on…
