Having a relationship with your parents is important. It is also important to have honesty between you and your parents, including the uncomfortable truths.
KING 5 shared a video on its YouTube channel about a dad who claims he is racist even though he has a Black daughter. Steve Ramey, a man from Washington, was interviewed with KING 5 about how he came to discover that he was racist.
He begins his interview by saying, “I was kind of raised, you know, to be us against them. I know that if I see a group of white kids and I see a group of Black kids, I’m going to be more on guard with the Black kids because of the way that I was trained, the way I was raised.”
Steve claims that even though it’s a harsh thing to say and that he doesn’t really want to say it, he is racist and doesn’t want to be. He even says he doesn’t mean to be racist. I feel some people would take that offensively, but I see it as a man raised to think one way and trying his hardest to rewire the thought process that he was taught since he was young.
Steve's daughter, Caitlin Noble, whom he has raised since she was 5 years old, is mixed. Caitlin is then the focus of the interview, explaining, “I went to a mostly white school. I would be called names a lot. They’d call me brownie or, like, racist names.”
Caitlin then says that she didn’t know that their treatment of her was racist and that she was confused about her identity.
The father and daughter are then seen having counseling sessions with race educator and coach Karena Hooks. Through their process, Karena asks personal questions to attempt to get to the bottom of Steve’s thought process when it comes to being racist.
During their session, Caitlin shows her true emotions toward her dad by answering Karena’s questions with tears streaming down her face. At one point, you can see Steve start to get offensive but quickly cooling off, knowing it will be a rocky path but the end result is worth it.
To learn more about Steve and Caitlin’s story, click the video.
