RACISM MAYBE?

It’s 2008 and you would think many things would have changed by now. Being raised in Jamaica exposed me to many things that I know many other people in the world for sure don’t experience on a day to day basis, but racism was never one of ‘em, especially in a country that is ~90% black, and for sure is more ‘class-ist’ than anything else.

This is where I segue into my ‘experience’ as I will refer to it form here on in. So I’m in a grocery/deli store in Seattle on 03.10.08 with two friends. So there is a lady at the bookstand reading, holding the leash of her jet-black Labrador in her hand. One of my friends starts to pet the dog and engages her in conversation. My other friend also starts to play with the dog. Strangely enough I wasn’t interested in playing with the dog, even though I love dogs. I smile at the lady, and that’s about all the interaction we really have. Keep in mind, my friends and the lady was not of my skin tone, to be politically correct.

This is where it gets good…So the said Labrador has a collar with a blinker on it. My friend then says “I see you had to put a blinker on him”. The owner of the dog then responds “Yeah cuz at night sometimes people may not see him especially going around corners”. So far you notice I am telling the story very storybook, because in a lickle I might waan bruk weh and get on baaaaaaad! But as the story continues, I then chip in and say “Cuz he’s black” (hence the need for the blinker). She then responds, “You would know what that’s like”, with a smile on her face. Me not being used to blatant racism or inappropriate racial statements, had a little chuckle and then immediately turned around and looked on my friend with a weird look. My initial instincts were to walk away, and walk away quickly, which is just what I did. I walked quickly out of the awkward silence, and ignored my other natural cultural instincts to chop her a rahtid box. And the only reason I’m comfortable speaking like this now is because of how upsetting this experience was to me, and because I’m GROWN now, so if you can’t handle the fire, step out of the kitchen.

Realistically speaking though, do people still say inappropriate things like that? I was appalled. “You should know what that’s like”. I should know what dat is like!! I wish I was an angry black person just for a split second, so that my reaction time could have been so fast that I could have said something equally inappropriate and made her feel awkward, BUT you know what, my wonderful parents taught me better. So I walked away like in those say no to drugs campaigns. I mean could you see the flip side of this story. The newspaper would read:

“Angry black Jamaican man assaults woman in grocery store, who simply made an analogy between her dog and his complexion. The man is a college student and will immediately go to court. He is currently in jail on no bail, and is likely to be up for deportation.”

When you look at the situation like that you realize it really isn’t worth stooping down to a low level. Another outlook could be that she really didn’t mean it in the way I took it, but based on my lack of exposure to such things, I find that hard to believe. I really would love to know how you all feel about this?

Again, I’m still just in sheer shock that people say things like that. In all my years of life I’ve never experienced any verbal racial commentary. It has had me deep in thought, and reminds me that no matter the amount of crap in my home country, nowhere no sweeter dan yaaaaaaad!