Black Infatuation

I find myself more and more intrigued with our nation's history of intercultural relations. I grew up in a home that was accepting of different races and cultures. My dad even belonged to a "tribe" and I have fond memories of watching those events. He made his clothing and was really involved for being a young father of multiple children and working retail. I remember one Christmas, several of my siblings were given moccassins that he made himself. I was fascinated and every year invited him to come and talk to my class at school about Native Americans.
We also were friends with people of all different colors of skin. I didn't understand that there were continuing race issues in my little world where everyone seemed to like everyone.
As I have grown older, my eyes have been opened to different situations and I want to understand why people do and say the things they sometimes do. It doesn't make sense to me, but I also realize that sometimes history and literature paint an extremely different picture than what was really going on. It wasn't how Margaret Mitchell paints the South in Gone with the Wind.
For this reason, I am grateful to read books like Uncle Tom's Cabin that opened my eyes to the North not being the "answer" to the slave issue or The Help which reminds me that, although "free" from organized slavery, the blacks in this country have had a hard time gaining true equality and what they had to suffer through along the way. Maybe it's the sociology. Perhaps the history. Or maybe it is just simply the politics that are revealed. It has my attention.