Shopping While White
Okra ready for cooking
New Haven , Connecticut has a sizeable population of African Americans that migrated to the city from the south during the great migration. One day Yale Professor of History Emeritus Glenda Gilmore who is a white southerner born and raised in North Carolina, picked some okra at a New Haven super market. Gilmore noticed an older black women puzzled by her produce selection. “The women followed me around the supermarket to the checkout counter.” The black women went on to say to Gilmore, “excuse me, but what are you going to do with that?” pointing to the okra. In her natural Carolina accent Gilmore responded, “I am going to do the same thing you are going to do,” and smiled. The accent said it all and the two of them smiled then laughed out loud.
