My grandmother has backward thinking sometimes, like she can't comprehend how minorities felt during segregation. Y'know backward.
Which is wild because when segregation ended, her mother quit teaching and became a tutor for Black & brown kids. Why? The school for POC didn't teach language or math, and the teachers there were not taught when they were young, so her 8th grade students couldn't count pennies and dimes, and that was it. She said she wanted to catch the students up, and the school said no, just pass them along. That pissed her off, and she quit and contacted the parents and offered to teach the kids. Because she knew it was wrong, the schools didn't want poc to have a proper education.
But my grandmother will randomly say that segregation didn't hurt ppl that badly, and they had equal opportunity just separated. The only equal thing about where she lived was that everyone was poor and had to grow food, hunt, or forage.
She was still taught a proper public education. The conversation started with her saying that as a small child, she wanted to go to the Black peoples grocery store, school, restaurant, etc.. and didn't understand why she couldn't, because they were the same. Which, for an innocent child that makes sense, but growing up, she learned the differences, literally talked about the school thing, the systemic problems.
And she would compare where she lived to the rest of America, like where she lived most people were the same money wise, and there was a lot of trade between Black people, the local tribe, and White people. People were a bit chiller than the rest of the state. There were a lot of illegal marriages in that town at the time, and ppl kinda of ignored the countries laws because the laws were stupid. So, like, if it was still pre-60s and she still hadn't left her town and was ignorant, because she hadn't seen the rest of America. But then y'know time passed she traveled the country, met people, saw things. Should know better, but doesn't. Her small city in the forest isn't the rest of America.
Then she's randomly surprisingly progressive. She's prolife when it's not used like birth control. Too young, Depressed, physical medical issue, A-Okay. That's cool because that's a necessity. She also said she doesn't understand why they're trying to get abortions illegal everywhere, and she feels it's a power grab.
LGBT+, chill, she had a Intersex Lesbian cousin and then a gay cousin (both older than her R.I.P) and talked about how they made her realize queer ppl aren't her business. Because media told her Queer people would shove sexual conversation down her throat, but her cousins just loved their partners and sex was never a part of the conversation and she doesn't understand why media always sexualizes queer people. Because unless the conversation is about sex, safe sex or just talking privately amongst friends, queer people don't just talk about their sex lives, especially w/ strangers.
She views trans people the way she views her cousin who's intersex. Her cousin was raised unisex because her parents didn't want to decide for her, and at 18, she got to choose medically what gender she identified with. And she got to choose if she got surgery or not. She listened to trans man who transitioned in the 80s, and he had a similar journey. He knew since he was in elementary school that he was a man. He saw doctors after he was 18, and they deemed that the best course for him was transitioning. I kinda worried that she could be a medicalist, tho. But yeah, she's chill w/ trans people.
Like, basically, I don't understand how she can both be ignorant and understanding at the same time? I kinda feel like she just thinks about issues affecting her.
Since her town, by majority, is not racist, why would anywhere else be racist? (Because people exist outside of your bubble)
Then, the queer people she experienced growing up showed her queer people are simply people, and who you love or present, does not affect whether you're decent or not.
She needs to see outside of her bubble because she'll never understand the world or why people feel the way they do.
Like at a point it makes me fear she is just racist, purposely.
I know she genuinely hates talking about anything serious. She freaks out and locks up, even things happening to family. She can not handle sensitive serious topics. She also downplays serious things if they're not as bad as another person's situation.
So a part of me wonders if she blocked it out and downplayed it so the idea didn't personally hurt her.
Aka, I think she is selfish and ignorant. And it's very upsetting.