2020-06-11
25 分钟Lorraine Toussaint ("The Glorias") reads an essay by Kim McLarin. Then, we catch up with Kim to hear how she is doing in this moment.
Produced by the ilab at Wbur Boston.
From the New York Times and Wbur Boston.
This is modern love stories of love, loss and redemption.
I'm your host, Meghna Chakrabarti.
Right now we are watching extraordinary protests around the world against police violence and racism.
And once again, in the United States as a country, we are having a conversation about what it means to be black in America.
So today we wanted to return to an essay that's also part of that conversation.
It's by Kim McLaren and it's called race wasn't an issue to him, which was an issue to me.
After the essay, we'll hear from Kim.
We first talked to her in 2019, and we reconnected with her on Monday to hear how she's doing right now.
But first, here's Lorraine Toussaint, who stars in the upcoming film the Glorias.
Lorraine's reading Kim's essay.
His name was Jerry.
A nice man, late forties, funny and smart, divorced with two grown children, a social worker who had dedicated his professional life to working with troubled kids.
He was also, let's be honest, the first to come around.
He was the first man after my own divorce to raise an eyebrow, to take an interest after my ex not only moved out, but moved on.
Funny and smart and dedicated to troubled kids is all admirable, but in truth, I would have said yes to a drink with a four foot, gap toothed troll, had one smiled in my direction.
The self confidence of a 40 year old divorced mother of two is a shaggy thing.
So the fact that Jerry was also white, I noted, but decided to file away for now.
Why worry about it right out of the gate?