Delroy Lindo

And having great fun.

And at a certain point in our game, a car pulls up.

And this kid that I was playing with goes over to the car and has a very short...

conversation with whomever was in the car which i now know was his parent his father he comes back and he tears he throws my garment that he had been wearing around his neck he throws it at me and grabs what i'm wearing his garment that i'm wearing around my neck and grabs it from me he throws my garment at me grabs um my garment from me and says i can't play with you um

And that was the end of the game.

Well, it was a signal of my undesirability, right?

So the answer to your question was,

was not necessarily specific to being called the N-word, but it was very specific to being racially othered.

Big time.

Yep.

It's been healing, actually.

I'm not denying that it has opened me up.

I've been compelled to scrutinize myself.

And I'm using that word very advisedly, scrutinize.

It's a scrutiny.

It's an examination of oneself.

But...

In my case, because a very, very, very significant part of what I'm writing has to do with reexamining my relationship with my mom.

And so my mom is a protagonist in my memoir.

I am examining history.