her racist statements when encountering a black dad in town today, but rather than finding her offensive, the dad found her to be delightfully funny.
Kellie Alda is a kindhearted and irrepressible mother of two who is so disturbed by racism that when she actually interacts with a person of another raceâwhich is rare in this communityâshe canât stop herself from injecting her darkest racial preoccupations into the conversation.
She first saw Deshaun Watson and his daughter Amahlia while standing next to them at the annual marathon.
âOh hi! Good morning!â she said, holding the hands of her twins, Peter and Emma.
âSo . . . Whatâs a black guy like you doing in a place like this?â she asked, laughing nervously.
Watson stared at her quizzically. âJust showing my daughter the marathon.â
Five-year-old Peter looked up at Watson very gravely and said, âAre you a jigaboo?â
Aldaâs hand went to her mouth. âOh my God! Peter! How mortifying, Iâm so so sorry. Iâve been trying to teach Peter and Emma about the history and legacy of racism, which is a hugely important issue to me, so I was telling him all the nasty names for brown people that they should never use: sambos, coons, coloreds, negroes, blackies, jigaboos, jungle bunny, macaca, and you know, the big one, the N-one.â
âYeah, Peter, you might want to forget those other words and just stick with âblack,ââ said Watson.
After a few moments, Alda leaned over and said, âI hope seeing this doesnât bother you.â
âSeeing a marathon?â asked Watson.
Alda said, âWell, maybe Iâm just really sensitive to race, but itâs like a white power rally to me. Thereâs a few black people being chased by an army of white people. I mean, I know itâs a marathon and all but doesnât it look a little weird to you? Like theyâre out to run down and lynch those poor Kenyans? Not that these Kenyans are poor. Iâm sure they are rich in KenyaâIâve seen them running on National GeographicâI meanâoh my GodâI mean, on ESPN. They donât wear shoes, but itâs by choiceâbetter for running I guess! Itâs not that they canât afford it, hahahaha.â
Alda never asked Watson what he did for a living, because, âI would just never want to ask a black gentleman what he does for a living. I mean, you donât want to make them uncomfortable if they arenât working, or doing something, you know, well you know, something else. This guy did seem kind of like a Mr. Mom. Which is great because, you know, black guys arenât always so great on the dad thing letâs be honest. . . . What a fine man.â
Later on, she saw Watson again at the park with Amahlia. Their familiar greeting attracted the interest of other park-goers. âThose moms are whispering and trying to hide their pointing! How disgusting, how utterly disgusting,â said Alda, convinced the other park-goers were racists. âA white mom and a black dad canât talk to each other without thinking about, you know, interracial porn? No, even worse, I bet they are thinking about Civil War slave porn, which is the sickest thing Iâve ever seen. It was so dirty and wrong and I just canât ever get it out of my head . . . and that slaveâs upper body, wow, just wow. . .â
Watson beamed at her in sheer amazement. âWanna come back to my house? Weâre going to get takeout,â he said.
âGee, well, hmmmm,â Alda thought. âOf course!â She whispered to this reporter, âHow could I say âNoâ? Heâd think I was scared of him, but I wasnât, of course!â
As she put the address in her carâs GPS, the system began guiding her away from the park and her own relatively modest neighborhood, and slowly but surely the houses got bigger and bigger until they pulled up