then my mom sat me down and explained the complicated system of family

youngbadmanbrown:

contaminatedbreastcheese:

when i was little, i didn’t really understand genealogical terms (because with africans, everyone is either your aunt, uncle, or cousin, even if they’re not–even if they’re not related to you), and even though i had no problem with figurative language, i had a literal streak that reared up when confronted with english words i didn’t understand

and so for a long time i assumed that a relative “once removed” was a person who had been banished from the family at some point for some horrible misdeed or disrespect, but had re-entered after making amends and regaining their honour

I love this