JUST LIKE FAMILY

This will sound familiar to many of us.   From John Seigenthaler, Birmingham, Alabama resident and Assistant to Robert F. Kennedy in FREEDOM RIDERS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/:          

“I grew up in the South—a child of good and decent parents.  We had women who worked in our household, sometimes as surrogate mothers.   They were invisible women to me.  I can’t believe I couldn’t see them.  I don’t know where my head or heart was.  I don’t know where my parents’ head and heart were, or my teachers’.  We were blind to the reality of racism and afraid, I guess, of change.”   The reference to “invisible women” reminds me of the compelling work of artist Rodney Grainger  (mentioned in previous posts–see photographs) who creates images of domestic workers fading away or faceless behind their white charges.