Friday 31 July 2009

Serve, Protect and Break a N%%%%'s Neck




My first reaction to hearing about Prof. Henry Louis Gates being arrested by a white cop was WTF? How can people actually tell me racism doesn’t exist? Once I heard that dude was in his own house and showed ID, I thought to myself, they finally messed with the wrong man, I was happy that it happened to Proffesor gates because it’s been my experience that this happens on a regular basis but people aren’t educated enough or financially stable enough to deal with it. I have had countless encounters with racism in and outside of work. At work it seems almost impossible to battle a racist co-worker or boss when they are all pretty much the same and don’t have a clue to what it feels like to be on the receiving side of racism ,and the ones who maybe aren’t racist don’t even get it. I was happy because it seems like this is the one person who can rant ,rave ,fuss ,fight ,kick and scream for all of us that cant afford to or are afraid to. As a young man my mother always told me to be humble when the cops are involved because even if you’re right, you’re wrong and that most importantly, hot lead and my skin don’t mix. I was happy that it happened to him because who else is better equipped with the knowledge and research to battle such nonsense. My republican friend was saying that he should have just been humble and submissive to the cop who was just doing his job. I had to remind one-way Jose that ive seen him almost shut down a Wal-Mart over poor customer service (I even wrote about that) and how pissed would he be if a cop asked him for his ID in his own house. My second reaction was that maybe this wasn’t about race as it was about two hot-headed people not backing down, but that only lasted a hot second. How many a time has my mother told me to look beyond the surface at what’s really going on. I personally would want someone to call the cops if something looked suspicious around my house, but when I showed ID, you need to Billy Jean Beat it copper and if I am giving you some serious lip-service you still need to beat it because clearly you’re wrong at that point. The more I thought about this the madder I got. How many times do my white co-workers call me some other black person in the offices’ name? How many times do they ask me about the “wire” because I live in the city? How surprised was my boss when I pulled out the passport with several pages “tatted” up? Racial profiling is so alive and well that a lot of times people don’t even know its happening and whats so sad is that certain people don’t even get it. How can you call a black man a “banana-eating jungle monkey”! and then have the audacity to say your not racist. Well Im about to go home and drink a beer. CHEERS!

Monday 13 July 2009

The streets are watching



Its been a long minute since I’ve been in the blog world. I would say that I had writers block, but you actually need to be a writer to have a block right? I only blog when the spirit hits me. I usually read other peoples stuff and it influences me. I need to be in a certain place to get going. A few things hit me this summer like MJ passing away. I ran right home to fire up the computer but then I realized that even though I know most of his songs word for word, I’m no authority on him, I didn’t have the jacket, glove or button. I never went to a MJ show so I decided to sit that one out. My stepmother passed away a few days after MJ and that had way more of an effect on me. My step mom and dad hooked up when I was six so she has been in the game for a minute. They have two kids who I consider to be my real-life sisters; I love them more than life. My relationship over the years with stepmother has been off and on. It probably has more to do with the fact that she was no real relationship to me so I could actually express how I felt whereas with my father, I had to pretty much swallow my pride. As I was thinking about how my father and sister must feel that they lost a mother and a wife, I started to think; damn I lost a stepmother, with the exception of my mother and father, who knew me better than her? Probably most of the times when people pass away all the bad things they did in life don’t seem so bad and all the mediocre things are magnified to greatness. Things they did that you didn’t understand at the time all seem to make sense now. Now that I’m thinking about it, my stepmother was my outlet, I would only see her on the weekends and she would most of the time give me the clearance for anything I wanted. I was the first kid on the block to drive before the age of 16. I usually had the most money on our little trips to the corner store. When my father was mad at me she would usually calm him down and within the hour I was out of trouble, all these things I took for granite. Most of the time when people are alive we don’t appreciate them like we should. I miss my stepmother, not because she isn’t here anymore but because I didn’t appreciate her to the fullest when she was here. I miss MJ for the same reasons, I never ever in a million years thought either one of them would die and the thought never crossed my mind. OK that’s it for know as I get back into the swing of things. Thanks Lisa B for inspiring me to get back in the game.