Personal experience...
My roommate is a black Lib (and a military vet) that I'm trying to help start a business...
GAME ON!!!
He will be a Republican yet!
Another small business owner, instead of a welfare receipient!!!
My best friend in college was a black guy. First time I met him, he came to our door in the dormitory and asked if I had any rolling papers. I took a step back and said "What makes you think we smoke"?
His reply... "Dude we can smell it".
My roommate in college introduced me to black rap or whatever music that was
when I heard squealing and squawking coming from her room.
I thought she was screaming over a mouse or something so I ran to her aid.
She was vocalizing to a tape and that noise was like adding her own percussion track,
not really singing but jamming along. I had no idea what that was. She laughed at me
and thought it was funny I was worried she was screaming for help.
When I go to the services at the historic Black churches in my district,
I am also the only Asian person there. I am used to not fitting in and always being
culturally different from anyone else around me.
I have grown to assume everyone is going to be different anyway, might as well jump in
and deal with those differences because I'm automatically different from anyone else. Get over it.
Cool story, *****.
I wish I had black friends like I did in the '70s.
I ride my bicycle every evening, and without fail all the white folk that I encounter at least make eye contact with me. Sometimes we wave, nod, or say hello.
But the blacks that I encounter go out of their way to avoid me.
Is it body odor?
Maybe it's because I'm dripping in White Privilege?
Or maybe they want nothing to do with me because Obama wants nothing to do with my lily white ass.
they used to gang up on me and beat on me, until I got big and muscular...
One of the funniest encounters I had was walking downtown with my First Amendment Sign
I had posted outside the Family Law Center protest.
A group of guys, a mix of Black and Latino, tried to cat call me about "hey baby what's your sign say"
When I stopped to show them, we ended up in a deep discussion of whether the police were following
the Bill of Rights, and what citizens could do to educate the public and enforce these laws.
One guy kept shouting over the ruckus "Just gimme the Fifth." insisting he didn't need the others if he had that one. Another guy took a copy from me of the Houston Police Mission Statement and the Bill of Rights on the back and totally understood, had an epiphany that THIS is what we needed to be doing to get people, police and govt on the same page. Hold officers and officials to accountability. he got what i was doing and really felt it was the answer.
This was years ago, had to be before 1997-1999 long before all the politics of race and police really blew up.
If these outreach programs had been implemented back then that I had been lobbying for to correct the ongoing violations and abuses in my home district of Freedmen's Town with a long history of Civil Wrongs,
maybe all these riots and shootings could be prevented.
Only 1 or 2 people would ever listen and get what I was doing, promoting the people to enforce the laws directly so everyone is equally empowered to participate and check govt.
Years later, now when we see the Tea Party or the rioters yell about taking back control,
then we argue they are out of hand. But if the empowerment and education is done correctly it is orderly
and prevents the abuse and mass chaos and protests that follow.
We need to bridge that gap that was caused culturally and politically by dividing Whites as property owners
from Blacks as property, and promoting that perception of class and abusing "laws" to enslave instead of empower people. The whole paradigm needs to change to remove this division over class and control.
