[Uryoces]

My Dad's family was racist. When my mom frist met her future mother-in-law, mom thought she was japanese! My dad's side has a lot of Somoan in it, which made their position all the more ridiculous. We raised a black foster baby for 6 months; J.C. was his name. That's all I remember. I thought it was cool that we had a new brother. He's somewhere in Tacoma now, I think.

We adopted my brother Daniel two days after he was born in '76. I was concerned that we got to keep him. Daniel's mother and a high-school sweetheart got a little more involved that the families wanted, and she was forced to give him up for adoption. She sent Daniel a few letters over the years, but he hadn't responded to them.

Things didn't finally come together so that they could meet until my Mom's funeral last year. It was a tearful reunion, but it went very well. Daniel and his mother meet about once a month, but he hasn't met the rest of her family yet. We're the only family he's known over the years, and he's our brother; we never think of him as black. I'd say he resembles Will Smith more than anyone. He does resemble us, too. If you spend enough time around people, you tend to think along the same lines, and the times you laugh or cry slowly etch their way into your face. We're still trying to get up to my Uncles cabin with my dad to some fishing. We have to do that before the summer lets up.

I blame Sesame Street for my level of color-blindness. I saw all these people of different colors and creeds interacting with Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Snuffelupegus, Bert and Ernie, and Kermit. I thought it was just the way things were.

My rascism didn't kick in until later, and even then it was more preconceived notions than anything else. It kind of turned out to be more classism than anything else. Po' folks of all kinds. Blacks, Rednecks, Ukranians; whoever. Anyone that thought "We" -- you know, "We" -- owed them anything. Other than respect, I don't owe anyone a goddamned thing. Uncle Sam wants to talk to me about that, though. I lived at my dad's and payed my community college tuition with a job at McDonald's for two years, then worked in kitchens for a while until I finally had my foot in the door in a tech support position. I had to earn all of that.

Success isn't shiny cars and houses, and I wish I could convince everyone of that. At the end of the day it comes down to 'How do I feel?' Pretty good most days. I think I made it.