The episode of first impressions was in secondary school in a history lesson. It was going to be about black history. All the girls were sitting listening to the teacher. I was too busy looking out of the window. Finally he shouted and asked me if I was paying attention.

I stood and said "Frankly no, in fact blacks have always been more than slaves, their history is vast and when you can be bothered to teach something of the composers, business people, warriors etc and those who contributed to this society more than their hard labour because if anything the Irish and Scottish and many other races were also slaves once upon time least you should forget, and when you can teach something positive I'll listen until then you'll find me in the school library."

That's where I found the books called "Forever" and "Sixteen" and passed them on later to the other girls to read, however it was well worn by the time it was returned to the library if it ever did.

Another instance, whilst I worked at a publishing company, I was handed a blurb to read and re-do (inside jacket sleeve giving readers a brief summary about the book = "blurb" publishing term). What she had written was about the early history of the USA. If I remember correctly, the opening lines were ".....and when America was discovered....." I handed it back to her to re-write (although she was senior in position). We had an argument in front of everyone for about twenty minutes and I wasn't about to back down. I conveyed it wouldn't be done to put such a wording so it was changed as I wanted as I found her's to be offensive.

The reason was:

1) The land had always been there so it wasn't "discovered" as it hadn't been lost in the first instance.

2) Before it was called America no doubt it was called by another name.

3) Any Native Indian would appreciate some dignity in their own history being mentioned which wasn't a jaundiced view point.