Dear Gertrude Martin,

Why is it that you compel yourself to associate with the likes of racists? With the likes of people who, provided they knew your mother or father, grandmother or grandfather, would spare no hesitation in evicting you from the graces of their human contact? Though you may be "passing on" to the depth of your skin, your mind nonetheless remains a part of our collective thought--of the fear and pride all blacks face in the presence of whites. You subject yourself to their unknown ridicule, release your anger in your own company, and then continue to place yourself in that situation. And how can you make blacks even blacker in the eyes of society by relegating "darker" children to the bin of undesirables? We share a lot, but there is more difference than I can see similarity.

Sincerely,
Irene Redfield (the mother of a darker child)

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