Are We All Racists

At Some Time Or Another?

10/04/07

No.  Still just mentioning "racism" people generally think about how White people have done Blacks in America.  What about how Blacks do Whites and let's certainly not omit how Blacks often mistreat each other. 

As a former service industry worker I'll bet I could write a best seller about how WE won't tip each other...  But who will buy it?  WE already know it's true that we mistrust each other even though we claim having nothing but "brotherly love". 

My theory based on over 30 years of experience with it happening to me is that Black people won't tip other Black people as much as they will tip "other" people, especially White people because we  don't care to impress each other.  It's a game really... To make people think you are doing better than you really are.

I try to call things as I see them so when I see racism, when I feel the heat of favoritism, regardless of who the doers are, I'm going to call the spade a spade no matter what or who.  That is how I really am and we can wait for the dust to settle before we start at each other again...

I've always been like this and after 54 years, it's too late to change plus I don't want to.  I like me like I am and if you don't (like me) then that's OK too...

Today I had the pleasure of talking to a very interesting fellow in the printing business named Mel Sparks. 

Amongst other topics I found myself explaining how WE are often priced-out of the same luxuries enjoyed by many Whites, not so much by money but more so because of just a few people's perceptions that the majority wouldn't want "us" perhaps living near them or having whatever luxury that we want that's in question. 

I told him about the time I was trying to buy a Rolls Silver Spur II Limo and everything was great with the financing until they found out I was Black and in the cab business... like I could somehow jeapardize the investment by drilling holes in a 100,000 car.  Like I would.

WHY would I want to ruin the value on my investment?  I wouldn't.

It's a quality of life issue where others often fail to realize that any people who work hard to attain growth and wealth want to keep it regardless of their race.  White people do not have an exclusive on appreciating or attaining value of luxurious things just as much as on the other side of the coin Black people have no exclusive on devaluing them.

In Austin in 1996 I sought to buy my dream house.  Originally a model that I and my family had visited countless times dreaming... yet unable to afford the price, I was later able to seriously consider buying it once it got on the market used a few years later.  I was elated because I loved the house's corner lot location, its over-size garage and game room above it and the layout of all the rooms.  Plus it had two stair cases and a laundry chute! 

The house is in a very nice neighborhood and priced in the mid-200s, a little higher than other houses in the block because of all the model home upgrades that were in it.  Undaunted by the price, I called my good friend Realtor Holland Wiler who began the purchase process on my behalf.

Everything went along very smoothly until it came time for me to view the house in person.

Holland, my limo driver and I arrived to look at it and as soon as I was introduced to the selling agent, she informed us that the house was unavailable to ME because the house wasn't for people "like me". 

What?  People like me?  Did she mean people with Diabetes couldn't buy the house or people that went to Reagan High School as a boy?

You should already know that she was NOT referring to my diabetes or Reagan.  For a second I forgot where I was and then I remembered that I live in Austin freaking Texas, the denial capital of the world where everyone but Black people think that racism is dead because it doesn't happen to them. 

Black people know that overt and covert racism happens so often that it cannot be ignored...not by US because we know the nightmare is more than just a dream. History bears the truth.

Long story short, Holland went around that lady's prejudice, contacted the owner and I bought the house.  We were the first Blacks in the neighborhood, not counting the two darker than me Indians that a neighbor THOUGHT were Black.  I guess if we are to go on color, they are...

The coups de grace came when the lady realtor who sought to prevent the sale came to get her yard signs.  She rang the door bell and I answered the door.  She asked for her signs which I had leaned appropriately against the trash can in the garage and after I retrieved them, handing them to her, she stated, "This house is haunted you know."

I laughed and said with the straightest face I could muster under the conditions of knowing that she hadn't seen one dime of commission on the deal, "So what?  You call us all spooks don't you?"

payback is a mother

God Is Good, ain't HE?