Ashley Graham recently opened up about how her racist grandmother reacted to meeting her future black husband Justin Ervin for the very first time.
Despite claiming that her family now loves her black husband, Graham says it was her grandmother who had the most vicious racist reaction once her supermodel granddaughter walked in with Ervin.
“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.”
Graham then goes on to blame the media in an attempt to defend her grandmother’s deep-rooted racism and her overall view of black men.
“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.”
No one wants to meet their wife’s family for the first time under those circumstances, especially when they’re not even aware that the in-laws are racist.
Flip the page to check out Ashley Graham’s photos.