MISSISSIPPI SISSY: #2

In this week’s installment of my reading from my first memoir, Mississippi Sissy, I continue the Prologue section.  But first I explain the context of using the n-word within the narrative when southern white people are speaking in 1964.   In the explanation, I talk about a phone call I got from Oprah Winfrey who talks about just that topic – the way white people talked around her when she was a child in Mississippi at the exact same time.  “This is not a coming-of-age story of a little gay boy,” she told me.  “This is a story about race.”

She was right.

Oh.  And I will be more aware of the volume next time.  I am fine with the sound but I realize that others need the sound to be a bit louder.

 

 

  • Kevin Sessums is the author of two New York Times bestselling memoirs, Mississippi Sissy and I Left It on the Mountain.

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