It must be how I was raised. Mom was a single working mom when I was in elementary school, during summer vacations I stayed with this nice elder lady during the day. In a very Latino neighborhood. Canoga Park. My grandparents lived near 3rd avenue at Slauson in then south central LA. Heart of the Watts riots.

So I got to spend my time & play with the neighborhood kids of various ethnicity, blissfully unaware of those adult problems among them. During the watts riots the National Guard set up a base in an elementary school. Right across the street from the grandparents house. I never saw it but heard all about it later from the kids I knew. I just was never taught the racist lessons or way of life.

The downside is I have about the same ability to understand hard violent racism about as well as I could understand a 3 headed cat. One thing just does not seem any less bizarre than the other to me.