Uncle Jose’ Bans the Eyetalian Mulattos

      My uncle hissed, "You better not tell Juanita! If you do, I’ll tell her that you threw yourself at me. Who she gonna believe? You? A nigga-lover with three mulatto brats. Or her own husband? You ain’t thought of too highly around heah, missy - you and your uppity ways. No one cottons to you carrying on and marrying that nigga Vincenzo.

I’m leaving, but I warn ya, you and your mulatto kids keep away from mine."

      My uncle stormed out. I felt sick to the bone. I had heard the word ‘nigga’ before, and I didn’t really understand the significance of the word -- just that it was applied to people of American African descent; often called black folk or colored people.

      Something about the word was distasteful to me the very first time I heard it.

To this day, the word sticks like a knife in my guts every time I hear it. The word nigga, or nigger, have always had a tone of distrust, distaste, anger, and almost always an undercurrent of fear. I was confused as to why Uncle Jose’ had called my father a nigga, after all Dad was Italian. That was also the first time I heard the term ‘mulatto,’ and I wasn’t certain what it meant. Judging by the tone of his voice, it carried the same connotations that the word ‘nigga’ held.

      It would be years before I found out that a certain, very small, percentage of people in our country shared my uncle’s viewpoints. I learned that this was true especially in the southern states. This small percentage of Americans thought that anyone whose ethnic background is from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central or South America, India, the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern countries, or Africa were all in that same distasteful category -- Nigga!

      Many years later, after seeing the movie "Deliverance," the memory of some of my relatives by marriage would come to mind; I could hear my uncle saying, "He’s got a purty mouth. Now, squeal lika sow!"