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Danielle Pompa
Tess Boone
Dance 1010
July 12, 2014
Life History Interview
The person in which I choose to interview, for this assignment, was my friends mother.
She is African American, from Kentucky, and 57 years old. Due to her age, place she was raised,
and her skin color she grew up in a very segregated time. This was the biggest reason why I
choose her for my interview. I was very curious what it must have been like to live in the time
and place where she did being the person she is. I choose to meet with her twice for this
interview; I choose this so that I could get the most out of the interviews. I feel like the
interviews that I conducted were a success, I learned so much about her. I not only learned so
much about her but I learned even more things about myself and about our society then and now.
She was very open with my and made me feel extremely comfortable with uncomfortable
questions.
The main subjects that I wanted to be addressed in this interview was what it is like living
as a black female in Kentucky, and Utah. I also addressed what it was like living as a black
female now and a black female then. I began the interview with asking her to tell me about her
life in Kentucky as a child. She told me how she never felt bad about being black, but that she
knew she was different. She told me one story about how she was passing two white girls when
she overheard them saying, Shh, were getting ready to go to color town. She said that that was
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the point in her life that she knew that she was different. I was very shocked at this. I guess that I
have heard all the stories in history class or on TV, but I had never had someone who had
actually experienced it right in front of me. What was even more surprising than this was how
kindly she talked about the white girls. She told me that they werent being mean, and almost
defended their actions. I was astonished at how someone could be treated like this and still see
the good in people. I also realized that those types of events in peoples lives are defining
moments. Those are the moments where you can choose to be bitter toward the people who treat
you badly, or you can choose to forgive them, and better yet understand them.
Another story that she told me was about how she and a few other black people from the
black neighborhood got put into the white school. This was during the time when they were
trying to integrate schools. She, yet again, spoke nothing bad of the white people she went to
school with. She did, however, talk about how she grew up with everyone in her community and
did everything together and how it was hard to have to go to the white school after growing up
with the same community her whole life. This was very understandable to me. Something that
surprised me was that they were still segregating schools not that long ago.
She also spoke about her family. She spoke about how her dad had to sometimes work
for white families. She told me about how her dad had to call the white children by sir, but the
children would just call him by his first name. She spoke about how her dad had to be very
respectful and how she was always told to be careful around whites, to watch what they said and
to keep their place. She said that she was never directly told that they had to feel less than
people but that it was more of a matter of survival, and to keep your mouth shut if you needed to.
This story made me feel very sad. Sad that not that long ago that is how we used to treat people
and that we made people feel like they were less than they actually were.
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When she spoke about the death of Martin Luther King Jr. she said that it felt as if they
had lost a member of their family. She said that she say how he represented something that her
and her family saw that was good, and how he was suddenly taken away. This story made me
feel very empathetic. I can only imagine what it would be like to lose someone who represented
the only way your family could be valued.
When I asked her about her customs such as dance and music she told me about her
church. She told me about how their music and singing was always an important part of their
worship. She also explained how they sometimes would dance in church as they praised God.
She seemed to value these things very much. I found this interesting, although in my church we
sing, we dont actually dance. To me this sounded like a great way to praise God.
The last thing that I spoke to her about was what her experiences were living in Utah. She
told me that when she first moved here she was working for a phone company. She told me a
story about a girl calling in about a bill she had paid. She said that the girl told her that she
doesnt lie, shes Mormon. She told me how shocked she was and that she was thinking, okay
well Im Baptist. She found it very odd for that being a reason to trust someone. She also told me
how she did still feel different in the beginning times when she first lived here. She said there
werent very many blacks and that she could tell that people still looked at her like she was on
the outside. I was a little surprised to hear this because to me I thought that most of the racism
would be gone by the age in which she moved here.
She then told me about how this has changed since she has gotten older. She says that she
still doesnt think that it is as good as it could be and could improve but that it is much better
than it was growing up. She said that she was glad that there is no more segregation. I agree with
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her on it still not being perfect. Her son, my friend, still tells me stories about how he
experiences racism. I guess that I thought that racism was gone by now until I became friends
with him. I think that many white people dont understand how much it is still around, because
we dont experience it. I think that it is important for us to tell people that it is still around and
how easily we could slip into it ourselves.
I learned that the saying what doesnt kill you makes you stronger is true. I think that she
showed me how you can overcome events in your life and still come out on top and have a
positive attitude. I dont know if I could follow her lead because this is much easier spoken that
actually applied. She has, however, showed me that it is possible and for that I know that I can
do it too. It still amazes me at how good she treats white people. She has overcome her
circumstances and made them something good.
This interview really impacted me positively. It gave me the perspective of, if she can get
through that and not only forgive but accept and understand, than I can too. I now want to do
more to make good out of bad. She definitely challenged my assumptions of racism being gone.
Racism still exists today. I think that I didnt really believe that black people these days ever
experience anything negative. I learned that that is a very wrong perception and is far from
reality. One perception that was reinforced was her experience of Utah. I knew about the
prominent religion being Mormonism, and it was not surprising that she found it a little hard to
adjust to.
The most surprising thing from this interview, as I mentioned above, was how she
handled the bad situation she was given. I think that for many they can become bitter at events in
their lives, and thats very easy to do. The thing that is hard to do is to give people the benefit of
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the doubt and to have an open mind. She has never treated me differently, or badly, just because
I am white. She has truly shown me how to triumph over bad events in your life and to turn them
into something beautiful.