Harrington is sitting in a dentists chair having his teeth molded when another dentist

walks in and cracks a racist joke; Harrington, whose wife is black and children are
obviously half-black, feels a surge of pain and anger. He has heard thousands of racist
jokes in his life, but this time he has a crossed a line that most white Americans never
will. He spends time with his wifes family, getting their story and trying to explore as
best he can the dynamics of race from the other side. Because of his wife and children,
he feels a need to understand more so than other white people.
The story takes place in Kentucky, where his Harringtons wifes family is from. It semiautobiographical, and it is also biographical about his wifes family.
The main character is Harrington himself, but he narrates the story with a strong focus
on his wifes familys perspectives. They are all different; there is Alex, his wifes father
who raised her to ignore race and not allow her life to be consumed with self-pity. There
is his wifes great-Aunt G. who held her light skin to be a source of pride; she wondered
how she would ever raise nappy-headed children, so she married a light-skinned
African American. Their daughter married a darker man, and now Aunt G. watches their
black as July jam children whom she loves better than anything.
White people can try and understand the dynamics of race, but rarely do we bother to
connect with members of other races and find out how they feel to be not white. We
know there is probably anger and hurt over discrimination and also pride for being who
they are, but there are so many other complicated emotions involved in being a minority,
especially one that has been so flagrantly discriminated against.
The tone of the story is sad at times, funny at others, but mostly it is serious and
introspective.
Harrington wrote about his family and his experience discovering the truth about his
wifes family and his early upbringing and experience as a white man and in life in
dealing with the issue of race. He begins with a recount of how the subject really became
on that he wanted to examine more in depth. It began with a racist comment being
made by his dentist as he examined his teeth. It then occurred to him that this dentist
made a remark that applied to his son as Harrington married an African American woman
and had two children. He then began to explore his wifes family history and there
dealing with racial issues and then he examines his life and observing the race issue play
out.
We learned a lot about Harrington, the lead character of the story. We learned his wifes
family history but mostly we learned how Harrington began to experience life as a black
man although he is white and how he began to recognize racism as an issue.
The story really occurs within the mind of the writer as he explores his past and his wifes
past. It occurs as far back as in 1865 with the family patriarch Berry Lawson and his fight
to keep the land left to him by his parents and up to Harringtons experience in the
Dentist office and the exploration of his childrens future.
This article is both a biography and an autobiography. Harrington combines biographical
information about his wifes ancestors and family members while recounting his own life
experiences in dealing with racism.
The article is a first person narrative as Harrington chronicles his experience and his
search to discover more about his wifes family. The tone of the article is extremely
serious as Harrington deals with the issue of racism in the past, present and future.

The central message of the article as a saw is that racism still exists today and people
need to be aware that it is still an issue. I also saw the message that racism has actually
evolved to affect more and more people because as the idea of family has changed and
families have begun to be able to identify with more than one race. It affects more than
just one race and affects people who are in that persons life as well.