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cultural or religious differences. It made no sense to me, but I had lived with this sort of philosophy espoused by others most of my life.
Human beings hurting one another in order to feel more powerful was one of the human traits I saw in others at a very young age.
My favorite cousin once exhibited this type behavior when we went fishing with my father. We went to the dam to fish but instead were in the middle of an emergency. Fire engines were everywhere and they were dragging the raging side of the dam for bodies.
Someone who had been watching the whole tragic scene told us that they were still looking for an uncle of a little four-year-old boy whose body they had found. The person relayed the story of how the little boy had fallen into the churning waters and the uncle who could not swim had dived in to save him. Instead they both died that day.
The fireman brought up a young man who was in his early twenties. Life, which should have really just started for him, had ended in such a tragic manner. He was about six-foot tall, weighing about two hundred and forty pounds, with short-cropped hair and beautiful black skin. The fireman laid his body out on the ground and covered it with a tarp.
Thinking of this man's selflessness and the useless way two souls had died made me start to cry.
My cousin did the unspeakable. She looked at me with no concern whatsoever and questioned me, "What are you crying for? They are only N-----s!"
Not believing my ears, I stared at her in confusion as the tears came more readily. "I am crying for two human beings that died so uselessly today."
My father had never taught me to believe in the manner in which this person had just confronted me. She was my father's brother's child. How could they come from the same family? How could she be my favorite cousin? At that point, she no longer was.
Page 63
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