Struggle | StoryCorps | Page 7
The story Mary Ellen tells about what she remembers about her grandmother is one of those shocking stories. She mentions how her grandmother worked for a white woman and you automatically thing you are about to hear another story about slavery. But to me its more than that. Although I know there are worse stories out there the details given in this story help paint a visual of what happened and it makes the listener kind of cringe simply thinking about how painful it was.
Mary Ellen tells the story about the white woman who had gotten rid of some personal belongings such as nail polish and perfume. Now although the items were old and barely usable, Mary Ellen's grandmother found a way to make the items useful. With the nail polish she had reconstructed, she took it into her own hands to beautify her nails and didn't think anything of it.
To her surprise, a white man in line in front of her at the grocery store saw her finger nails and questioned her about it. The shocking part of the story was when Mary Ellen says that the man then took her grandmothers hands and pulled all of her finger nails off one by one.
When I heard that I couldn't help but to cringe as i mentioned before! The thought of that happening is crazy to me and even though i know that stuff happens, its still unbelievable to me. Its disgusting that people like that white man were once able to do what they pleased simply because of their race.
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