Let's Talk Politics

Yeah it is.

It's not too hard to find the big ones like that, but the smaller ones have the desired cumulative effect so that many are unaware they even exist while some just flat refuse to admit their existence.

I never realized it until one day (like every other day) when I took all of my employees to lunch.

We went into a run of the mill hick town restaurant, walked the buffet, didn't like the looks of it and left.

When we got to the car, one employee who has very dark skin said that he was glad we decided not to eat there because of the looks he was getting from the white folks. (everyone in the room was probably white except him.) I hadn't noticed anything or even given a seconds thought about the color of anything except the meatloaf, but he picked up on something that was apparently having its intended effect on him. He was very uncomfortable.

It was news to me because I had never considered his pov. I never felt the dirty looks because they were only occasionally directed at me. I really didn't consider Mike to be a BLACK man, either. Just another man.

In contrast, I stumbled into a soul food restaurant in Atlanta with the same naivete and was treated as just another diner. I didn't even figure out it was a soulfood restaurant until I noticed that we were the only white people in there. That was was near the ball park.

I had the same experience at another soulfood restaurant but this one was in the very poorest section of Newport News, VA and I was in there with the same black employee.

I was in Memphis one time and got lost on my way to Georgia. Ended up in West Memphis and had a cop ask me what the hell I was doing as I walked in a McDonalds to get a drink. Told me that I needed to follow him on out of that area before I ended up with a bullet in my %^$. I didnt realize I was getting stares until he said something to me and then all of a sudden I was aware of my surroundings and I got the F out, quickly.

Only time I felt like I was in the wrong spot, but have been in a few places in St Louis and KC that were sketchy.

I have never felt whiter than accidentally taking Business Loop HW 71 in KC I was 18yo with a fashionable mullet.

This sounds soooo racist, but I do remember thinking "oh, this is why there are jokes about street corners and porches."

Until then, I only encountered different races through church missionaries. /cool story bro

I have done that also.  Did it coming back from St. Joe.

I forget the name of that street, but when I saw it I knew I had made a mistake. 

Is it Prospect?

Yeah, well one time I was traveling through South Dakota and I wanted to use the restroom at the old convenience store and before I knew it two guys came from behind me and one of them grabbed me by my ponytail. The other one said, anybody got a knife? I was able to swing an elbow around into the throat of the guy with my ponytail and run for the door.

That’s when I got hit in the back of the head by something with much mass and no flex. The next think I knew I was being held up on my feet on top of a chair with a rope around my neck. One of them kicked out the chair and I just could not breathe and died quickly.

&%$ South Dakota. I’m never goin back.

Oh Norm