Well I tried to remain silent....
Over the long thanksgiving weekend, I was out talking to one of my neighbors, you know, shootin' the shit and talking about a planned camping trip in July. When all of sudden he took the conversation to a different level. First, let me get the tale pf the tape out....Willie, that's his name is over 50 and of course, I'm 39. So between us is probably 14 or 17 years different and a whole new experience between the both of us. Willie is from New Orleans, LA and I'm from, well...Long Beach, CA via a lot of stops in between.
So let me set the table up for you. Prior to the holiday weekend, a local talk radio host brought up the subject of what do you do, when someone is bashing the war, republicans and so on...Do you stay quiet and let them go with their non-facts and outright untruths. Or do you try to engage them in a civil conversation of point and counter point...Please take note, that out of the 4 or 5 years I've been doing political talk and debates with liberals. Civility is never no where to be found. So in Willie's case I tried to take the high road as he said two things that were outright wrong and something that would make jury convict a guilty person. You see, Willie is cool and although he's old skool I gotta respect the road he's been on and his lifes experience. You see, although I have never experienced outright bigotry and racism, Willie has and as far as he's concern his experience is enough to say the country he lives in is as racist as it was 400 years ago...I can't argue that and I can't believe I used too and to a certain extent still do after finding out what made a particular situation racist. Hell, I think the whole thing against Barry Bonds is racist and smells to the high heaven. Whereas someone else may disagree.
But back to Willie, after he got off his points of opinion, I did well by not saying anything until the issue of global warming came up and I could stands no more. You see Willie feels that the temperature is changing and that he feels that certain days in a certain season is more than it was when, oh hell, yesterday! And to tell the truth, I should've let that go also, since he said that it was global warming that caused the floods and hurricanes that damaged New Orleans instead of what Farrakhan and Spike Lee went around telling the rest of country. That being from a unnamed source [Ray Nagin] told them that the levys were blown up and that caused a whole area, a predominately black area to flood, causing said blacks to loot and commit additional crimes against each other, make false claims to get FEMA checks and oh yeah, leave New Orleans and become tax users in neighboring states, but as I digress! I would have accepted global warming as an explanation from Willie.
Chalk that one up for being young...
So after argueing over global warming, he brought up that a nephew is locked up because he's black. So I asked him, to explain what happened and how come no news stories haven't broken this headliner. Here's his explanation:
My nephew is a college student and he was at a party in Fullerton (a suburb in the OC), CA., when someone's (white person) cell phone came up missing. Police were called and since the nephew had no reason to run and didn't have a cell phone, he felt safe to stay...
And then the story took a different twist....
The police questioned the nephew and checked to see if the cell phone the nephew had on him was his...
I interupted, "Whoa, Willie! I thought you said your nephew didn't have a phone."
Willie replied, "No I didn't..I said he had his own phone."
So he continued his story and diatribe that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should do something about the huge number of us black men locked up. I was shocked, I hadn't realized I had been imprisoned for 20 years. So I asked him, why so many black men are locked up..
His answer almost floored me...he said it was racism and racism period...
What?! I exclaimed, "are you kidding me?"
Willie: Nah, they would rather lock us up and throw away the key..
Me: Willie come on, are you saying everybody in prison, who is black, is in there because of racism...What about the guy who killed GaNeane's cousin? he's black.
Willie: I didn't know about that, but I'm talking about the ones locked up for drug and stuff...
Point and Counterpoint situation....
Me: Well Willie, the president just signed an order changing the sentencing guidelines for crack and powder cocaine and this eleviate the huge number of black men going to prison...
Willie: Well I don't know about that...
Me: I just told you..
Willie: You sure
Me: Positive, and by the way, when this same issue came up for Bill Clinton, by his appointed committee to look into this, he dismissed and it remained until...George Bush and his appointed committee did something...ain't that something..and Kanye West said that Bush doesn't care about black people...
At this time, Willie is still steaming over the global warming argument..
Willie: You think global warming had nothing to do with the hurricane that hit Nawlins'
Me: Nope. I think the city and state neglected to maintain the levys and spent the federal funds on gamblin' and women...and besides the city is sinking...
Willie: The city ain't sinking!! you see what happened was that all the sediment at the bottom of the Mississippi river built up along the levys and at the same time caused the river water level to rise.
Me: What?! So you're telling me that the city is not sinking because of sediment build up and thus the reason why the waters breached the levys...
Willie: Yeah!
Me: Interesting...it seems to me that the same sediment that the river was moving along, should have moved the same sediment along the levy...Nevertheless, no one did anything about the levys...
Willie: That's global warming!
Luckily one of his friends pulled up and it ended the conversation....Ol' Willie was steamed....
Next, a friend of mine, told me over the phone that she had a cousin over and she thought about me and wished I had been there, based off what he was saying. When she told me what was said, I simply told her...Naw, me being there would not be a good idea.
So let me set the table up for you. Prior to the holiday weekend, a local talk radio host brought up the subject of what do you do, when someone is bashing the war, republicans and so on...Do you stay quiet and let them go with their non-facts and outright untruths. Or do you try to engage them in a civil conversation of point and counter point...Please take note, that out of the 4 or 5 years I've been doing political talk and debates with liberals. Civility is never no where to be found. So in Willie's case I tried to take the high road as he said two things that were outright wrong and something that would make jury convict a guilty person. You see, Willie is cool and although he's old skool I gotta respect the road he's been on and his lifes experience. You see, although I have never experienced outright bigotry and racism, Willie has and as far as he's concern his experience is enough to say the country he lives in is as racist as it was 400 years ago...I can't argue that and I can't believe I used too and to a certain extent still do after finding out what made a particular situation racist. Hell, I think the whole thing against Barry Bonds is racist and smells to the high heaven. Whereas someone else may disagree.
But back to Willie, after he got off his points of opinion, I did well by not saying anything until the issue of global warming came up and I could stands no more. You see Willie feels that the temperature is changing and that he feels that certain days in a certain season is more than it was when, oh hell, yesterday! And to tell the truth, I should've let that go also, since he said that it was global warming that caused the floods and hurricanes that damaged New Orleans instead of what Farrakhan and Spike Lee went around telling the rest of country. That being from a unnamed source [Ray Nagin] told them that the levys were blown up and that caused a whole area, a predominately black area to flood, causing said blacks to loot and commit additional crimes against each other, make false claims to get FEMA checks and oh yeah, leave New Orleans and become tax users in neighboring states, but as I digress! I would have accepted global warming as an explanation from Willie.
Chalk that one up for being young...
So after argueing over global warming, he brought up that a nephew is locked up because he's black. So I asked him, to explain what happened and how come no news stories haven't broken this headliner. Here's his explanation:
My nephew is a college student and he was at a party in Fullerton (a suburb in the OC), CA., when someone's (white person) cell phone came up missing. Police were called and since the nephew had no reason to run and didn't have a cell phone, he felt safe to stay...
And then the story took a different twist....
The police questioned the nephew and checked to see if the cell phone the nephew had on him was his...
I interupted, "Whoa, Willie! I thought you said your nephew didn't have a phone."
Willie replied, "No I didn't..I said he had his own phone."
So he continued his story and diatribe that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should do something about the huge number of us black men locked up. I was shocked, I hadn't realized I had been imprisoned for 20 years. So I asked him, why so many black men are locked up..
His answer almost floored me...he said it was racism and racism period...
What?! I exclaimed, "are you kidding me?"
Willie: Nah, they would rather lock us up and throw away the key..
Me: Willie come on, are you saying everybody in prison, who is black, is in there because of racism...What about the guy who killed GaNeane's cousin? he's black.
Willie: I didn't know about that, but I'm talking about the ones locked up for drug and stuff...
Point and Counterpoint situation....
Me: Well Willie, the president just signed an order changing the sentencing guidelines for crack and powder cocaine and this eleviate the huge number of black men going to prison...
Willie: Well I don't know about that...
Me: I just told you..
Willie: You sure
Me: Positive, and by the way, when this same issue came up for Bill Clinton, by his appointed committee to look into this, he dismissed and it remained until...George Bush and his appointed committee did something...ain't that something..and Kanye West said that Bush doesn't care about black people...
At this time, Willie is still steaming over the global warming argument..
Willie: You think global warming had nothing to do with the hurricane that hit Nawlins'
Me: Nope. I think the city and state neglected to maintain the levys and spent the federal funds on gamblin' and women...and besides the city is sinking...
Willie: The city ain't sinking!! you see what happened was that all the sediment at the bottom of the Mississippi river built up along the levys and at the same time caused the river water level to rise.
Me: What?! So you're telling me that the city is not sinking because of sediment build up and thus the reason why the waters breached the levys...
Willie: Yeah!
Me: Interesting...it seems to me that the same sediment that the river was moving along, should have moved the same sediment along the levy...Nevertheless, no one did anything about the levys...
Willie: That's global warming!
Luckily one of his friends pulled up and it ended the conversation....Ol' Willie was steamed....
Next, a friend of mine, told me over the phone that she had a cousin over and she thought about me and wished I had been there, based off what he was saying. When she told me what was said, I simply told her...Naw, me being there would not be a good idea.
posted by J.C. "Fanz23" Lewis, Jr | 2:56 PM
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