No one is born with prejudices.

[brewens]

3. I used the "N-word" one day after having just moved to a new neighborhood.

I was six and had been playing with a neighbor kid and a kid from a few blocks away that I had just met. The other kid was saying it so I figured it was okay. Not so much! I got my butt spanked by my mom!

My dad was a white WWII vet from Montana via S.Dakota and my mom was also from Montana. I mean way the heck out there in eastern Montana, a little town called Ekalaka. You didn't use racial slurs at our house. I grew up pretty much not even knowing what a Jew was or caring, until I saw a mini-series on The Holocaust I think. I didn't know or think much about any religion actually. I suppose I was supposed to be a Christian of some sort. I remember some Sunday school and went to church on holidays and stuff like that. Not enough to really be indoctrinated and definitely not be prejudiced toward other religions. Now I think they all made all that stuff up.

I'm guilty of for a time thinking I had a problem with our local Native American and gay people in a way. That was all learned, growing up in our part of Idaho. I unlearned it. The gay part was never hatred though. It doesn't make it much better but that always struck me as funny. Having a real good friend come out as gay years ago solved that. You'd be surprised maybe, knowing his bunch of high school friends from a redneck area, that every one of us accepted that and are still good friends. Only one guy was a little hard on him but he came around. Maybe because he would have been the one that was disowned? Oh well. If that's what it took, it's all cool now.