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How did your friends and family respond when they found out you were going to go to Central?
Well, many of my family thought that we were going to anger the white
people. And the term "the white people" was important because for me at that
age and for most people my age, the white people were in control. It worked
like we were in a jar, and they had the lid. They were in charge. And so you
spent a whole lot of time thinking about what would or would not anger the
white people.
So some black people said what we were doing was OK and applauded. But a lot of
them feared that they would lose their jobs, that they would anger the white
women whose kitchens they worked in. And they were right. That is exactly what
happened. Jobs were taken away, people lost their goodwill. On holidays, the
white people who had given us gifts before stopped giving.
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