ERR’BODY • BHA Interview Transcript

10:24

Quintez (1995): I think for me, like, the terms house and home, it could be because this is the house that I live in is the only house that I’ve really ever lived in. So for me, like, house is the home.

9:27

Quinton: What’s your understanding of the terms house and home?

32:26

A.Mason (1968): Okay, well, where I’m from? I’m from the country. Roots and my mama. So I considered house and home the same thing. We described it as the same thing.

9:42

C.M. (1963): To me when the difference I guess house was always home my home was always a house we you know we live where we live.

8:39

R.Mason (1996): Um, like I said home, the running joke is what Home is where the heart is. But yeah, I going on trips and you know, having these wild adventures and stuff and coming back. All I know is I’m just excited and ready to be back home. There’s no place like sleeping in your own bed and being in a place that’s very familiar to you.

Theodore (1943): Well a house is just a building a home is what you make it and now what did you what how what you have in it and how you perceive it to be home it’s just a little more than a building.

9:20

Dayquan (1993): So for me a house is somewhere where you reside, and I think about home, I think about Home is where the heart is, is where you feel most comfortable where you feel most loved.

12:36

Tiwian (1990): To me house is a structure where you’re staying or live or have lived and home is probably more of a feeling you know, wanting to be somewhere where it’s it’s comfortable and safe and where you’re where your people are may not necessarily be a house but you know you can I would consider that home.

24:31

E. Harris: (1942) Well, I guess the house is just somewhere you stay at, but a home is a way to show love. You know you’re everybody’s connected. You know, it will be a home.

25:23

Sharon (1963): And again, for us, again, my grandparents, grandma, especially his parents, and I refer to them because that’s where I live…

10:58

Andre (1994): Home I would say it’s my parents house where they currently live and it doesn’t matter who’s in that house with us because that is home. And I think a lot of my childhood memory is routed to that specific location where it’s that that’s home to me.

22:28

Craig (1963): So Home to me is, is the people that not necessarily live with you are invited into your personal space. And anybody that’s within your personal space. That’s your comfort zone. That’s your, your trust zone that, you know, you know, where you can let your hair down for say, yeah, let me let my hair down. I’m sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that’s what a home is a house to me is, is a place where you can you know, have some friends to come over but they’re not in your trusted circle. houses where you hold your physical possessions, you know, but a home is the people that that not necessarily live there but people that you invite, and you trust into your inner circle.

30:36

Dora (1953): A house can be a place that you reside. And you could have 10 people in there. But if you’re not happy, you don’t feel welcome–it’s not a home. So Home to me is where you can, everything anything could be happening at work out in the street. But when you say there’s no place like home, that’s because that’s your safe haven. You should be able to go home and have peace and love when you can’t go anyplace else. That’s my difference.

23:52

Paulette (1960): House and home, House is the building per se. You can live anywhere and it can be your house, but you have to make it home and you make it a home by your family, or experiences you’ve had or in my son generally says, your home also is in your heart. Anyway you’re at it can be your home. So I guess I kind of feel the same way.

29:43

RW (1973): Home? My grandparents was where I felt safe at where I felt like I could unveil, nonjudgmental just be. My house was that’s where I live. That’s where I reside. Just the place is a structure is a building.

20:31

LaToya (1982): …in the simplest terms, like when I think of house, I think of like, a physical structure. When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love and affection.

21:27

AW (1970): Um, I would say a house is just somewhere where you, you know, just a structure in the home is more something that you it’s, it’s a place you call home, it’s your safe space, it’s peaceful. You look forward to goin’, you know, you pass houses and on the street, but you look forward to going home? And home is something you can call your own, basically.

19:29

Dale(D) (1989): House is a place of residence,

Elysia(E) (1990): physical structure.

D: And a home is where you’re most comfortable where you find comfort.

D: I’d say every place that we’ve resided together, was our home. Absolutely. And it doesn’t have to be one place. And that can be levels too because I feel like when I go back to Brooklyn, I get a sense of home as well like being at my grandmother’s house. Is a sense of home for me.

E: I was gonna say that as well like going back to the place where I grew up in Rockville. Even though I no longer live there, that still feels like home to me, even though this is my home where we live now. That also still feels like home to me as well.

41:10

Holly (1969): A house is the structure a home is the love and the community within it.

Mason, Q. (2023, February 02 -- March 10). “BHA interview” participants explain their understanding of the terms house and home [oral history][audio]. Black Home Archive.