Race Card Background
I am a White woman who grew up on the Southwest Side of Chicago in the ’50’s. Back then Ashland Avenue was “the Dividing Line”. Blacks were pretty much confined to the east side of Ashland Avenue while Whites had the broad spaces from west of Ashland out to the furthest suburbs. So it is no surprise that I was 42 years old before I had my first Black best friend, Monica. Monica was “South Side” like me and, even though she came from the east side of “the Dividing Line”, we were sisters from the start. We had the same teaching style we had learned from the nuns. As little girls we each endured the torture of having our Moms put a hot metal curling iron from the gas stove on our hair (and sometimes scalp), albeit to produce straight hair for her and locks for me. Both of our uncles worked at the Campbell’s soup factory so we both experienced the shock and awe of opening free unlabeled dented soup cans. We are both retired now: ebony and ivory for over 30 years. I am blessed.
