My half- Chinese grandmother’s half- sister was half Latina… because their half Irish, “passable” dad…was tall, gorgeous and as ridiculously United Nations before there was one as I leaned into being coming up. That half sister is the gypsy of my grandmother’s generation the way I am the wanderlust mofo of mines. There’s one every generation on that side of the family. Because of him. from 1916, on.

She’s who I stayed with my 13th summer up on Roosevelt Island , the one that changed my life.

The south was a Lot more diverse than they’ve led you to believe back in the day. And everybody was fucking everybody, mixing with everybody. Even in the midst of that seething hatred trying to shut it all down. That’s what they don’t want you to know. People just loved. & Fucked. Then got pushed to hide it. To cloak what who they loved…was. Some chose not to. Some had no choice but to.

Let them try.

They’ve tried to stop this experiment many a times.

A few years back I’d heard they were trying to stop teaching about the hybridization of roses to kids in science class. Because it taught kids they were all still roses, no matter the hybridization. I wonder if they got their way on that?