Originally Posted by Bladewire

My step Grandma was racist too. she was the only real grandmother figure I knew I'd seen my maternal grandmother two times in my life at that point.

I'll never forget the first time I heard the word n**ger I was 6 and it was Christmas and we had just open a Christmas tin of salted mixed nuts. I picked out a Brazil nut. My step Grandma said "Do you know what this is called?" I said "no". She said "It's called a n**ger toe". She was sweet as pie and the quintessential grandmother, other than the racist part.

The racist part of her doesn't negate the rest of her. In my experience with her it was a small part of who she was that reared its ugly head very rarely. When it reared its head it really impacted me though, as in seeing a hateful part of a wonderful sweet woman. I grew to see it as a defect, like an alcoholic or drug user. Racism is a human defect that all races suffer from.