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- ÷ ·««NATION, Page 14Smiles vs. StaresBy Robert Benson, Priscilla Johnney Benson
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- Three years ago Robert Benson, 42, a white meatpacker in Kansas
- City, married Priscilla Johnney, 46, a black nurse. She has six
- children from a previous marriage and cares for three handicapped
- foster children, two white and one black.
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- "In some churches, you're ignored. They won't sit beside you,
- especially at a church that is more white. At black churches, they
- raise eyebrows, but they don't do anything," says Priscilla. "We
- go to the malls, and people look at us, and some give us a look of
- approval or disapproval, but it doesn't stop us from holding hands.
- Sometimes people see us, and they think, `Oh, nice. He can afford
- a housekeeper.' When Robert puts his arm around my waist, they're
- in shock. `He's having an affair with his housekeeper.'"
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- "When we go down a road and stop at a light, white people and
- black people look at us all mad like," says Robert. "I wave at
- them. When the light changes, I wave them on and say, `God bless
- you.'"