I got home from picking up the kids and checked my phone messages. There was one from my Grandmother. She wants to take us to her church's Christmas dinner. It's not something that we are going to want to do, but if it will make my Grandma happy - I'll go this year.

Grandma said that she's also going to be bringing the boys that rent rooms from her. I'll be surprised if they don't all find excuses to get out of it. Anyway, I haven't met these new guys. She gets new students in every six months and has been pretty lucky so far. Most of these students have been very kind and helpful to her.

She was telling me about her new students a few weeks ago. She said that the one who rents the room upstairs is a "dark skinned fellow....but he really is very nice." I wondered why she thought that I'd be surprised that a dark skinned fellow was nice, but decided to let it go. Tonight she made a similar comment on my voice mail. She said that she wondered what people at the church would think when she showed up with a black man, and then added that "he is a very nice young man though". I don't think that Grandma realized that I am married to a "dark skinned man" when she made her comments.

Grandma is a very loving lady and would treat every person equally regardless of their skin colour. It just strikes me that things must have been so different in her day. I have not seen the prejudices that so many talk about. My kids were completely colour blind until a few years ago. They were shocked when I told them that their aunt was black. They hadn't noticed. My husband, an Arab, has not been harassed because of his skin colour - even after 911. I wonder why my Grandma had the subconscious need to apologize for being in the presence of a black man, and why she would be more concerned about that than about being seen with her other borders whom have multiple facial piercings. I'm sure that she has no idea that her comments were offensive, and I know that she meant no harm. I am just fascinated by the underlying bigotry and am curious as to where it came from.

The whole thing just seems so Jerry Springer to me.