Quote Originally Posted by Randall Flagg View Post
I was born in Alabama, in a county that was extremely racist and homophobic. My Mother took my brother and myself away at a pre-teen age. We moved to California. When I went to my grandmother's funeral back in Alabama I was ~13 years old. That's when I had a small epiphany (Is a small epiphany even possible?). I had long hair, and everywhere I went adult men teased and confronted me about me resembling a "girl". In California long hair on boys wasn't a big deal-in fact that's what all the young teenage girls where attracted to. That's when I realized how ignorant their (local people) ideas were very screwed up.
It also showed me the terrible racism that was overt in all aspects of their society.


I never returned to Alabama, and that funeral was the catalyst for my epiphany. I returned to California a much more enlightened and tolerant young man.
We had the metalheads in school and being super gay, I thought cool I can grow my hair long and still listen to awesome music and read bitching King novels but by the time I graduated, I think pretty much everyone knew.
My father was such a racist man that if he and my mom were eating in a restaurant and a "mixed" couple came in, he would get up and leave and wait for my mom to follow. His favorite place to go for a while was Ol' Country Buffet. The owner loved him. See most people loved Daddy, that's what I called him when he died so it's hard to shake but everyone loved him because he was charming so the owner loved him and wanted to show him his new grandbaby daughter. He walks out holding a Black baby and after he goes back in the kitchen, my father gets up and never went back to Ol' Country Buffet Again. The racism is REAL and it is deep and it is fucking insane.

I hated that my father was like that. I had long talks about it with him. He believed in God and I used God's reasoning to at the very least get him to stop referring to Black folks as the N word just in my presence. I counted that a big win but I knew he never would accept the gay thing. I knew I was a goner once that was found out but then he died before I could tell him. My brother threatened to kill me over it and died in a crash a few days later but that was years down the road.


Just to add a little more, my niece was solely with Black guys and has a lovely biracial child. Her father and that entire side of the family disowned her.