Ashley Graham Recalls Her Grandmother First Meeting Her Husband
Get Out: Ashley Graham Says Her Grandma Reacted Racistly When She Brought Her Black Boyfriend Home
Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com
Ashley Graham Recalls Her Grandmother First Meeting Her Husband
Back in the day Ashley Graham’s meemaw clearly needed a checking from someone—that was missed. Graham, the thickalicious model/body positive pioneer, recently shared an excerpt from her book with Glamour where she reflects on meeting her now-husband Justin Ervin.
According to Ashley, while her family in Nebraska now LOVES her hubby, the first time they met him at least one of them had a visceral, racist reaction. In particular, her grandparents didn’t know she was bringing home a black man and her grandma SHOWED OUT and refused to even acknowledge his presence.
“I never told Justin any of this, and I never told my grandparents that the man I was bringing home was black,” wrote Ashley. “I naively hoped everyone would be color-blind—which is not what happened. When my grandparents met Justin, my grandmother was cordial but cold.
She greeted him and immediately walked away. When it came time for them to leave, my grandparents didn’t even acknowledge him. Instead my grandmother looked me in the eye, with Justin standing behind me, and said, “Tell that guy I said goodbye.”
I had never seen my loving, hardworking, and wonderful grandma be so hurtful and so racist,” wrote Ashley. I was in shock.”
After they left I took Justin on a ride to get out of the house. I’ll never forget what he said as we drove around town: “Racism is never surprising but always disappointing.”
Girl…
Ashley goes on to pretty much defend her grandmother’s racist behavior and blames it on media’s violent depictions of black men. She then gushes about her “understanding” hubby making a good impression on grandma by calling her on her birthday.
“Justin made me understand that someone like my grandma only saw black men depicted on television in situations involving guns, rape, and violence—situations that perpetuate racist stereotypes against black people in general and black men in particular. She had probably never looked a black man in the face, let alone had a conversation with him, and now one was in her daughter’s home, dating her granddaughter.”
As if his understanding wasn’t generous enough, Justin called my grandmother on her sixtieth wedding anniversary. He’s not a texter or an emailer; he’s a pick-up-the-phone-and-call-you person, and anniversaries are a big deal to him. Afterward Grandma called my mom and said, “You’ll never guess who called me.” And from then on out, she loved him. Loved him.”
Justin is a very nice and understanding man, but Ashley and/or someone in that household could have spoken up to her Mayonnaise splattered MeeMaw for acting a whooole donkey about her boyfriend’s race. Furthermore, why didn’t she tell them in advance or warn Justin that this could happen?
https://twitter.com/VivaciousWritin/status/937353281264914433
What do YOU think about Ashley Graham’s story???
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXyXxHJgoZC/?hl=en&taken-by=mrjustinervin
More on the flip.
