A DAMN SHAME

After a long grueling day at work, I had planned to come home and go straight to sleep but this post NEEDS to be written. I was all for a short FB status but I decided against it so I wouldn't limit myself in my rant. I am going to write what I heard someone saying on the B46 in Brooklyn and you judge for yourself.

So this guy (55-70 years old) is seated in the back of the bus on his cellphone and says very loudly:

 "What in the world. All these colored folk are coming on the bus. WOW these colored folks are coming on the bus by the thousands. These colored folks ain't stopping, now I feel Claustrophobic"


I couldn't believe my ears and I guess the person on the other end of the line couldn't either because they hung up. So this same guy sees a man (in his twenties) dressed in a suit, shaking his head so he turns to him and says:

"Why you shaking your head BOI. Its true they colored but it would be different it I called them Negroes"

So the young guy answers in disbelief and says:

"I was born after the 1980s so I guess we think differently"


I guess this old man though he was Kevin Hart and he was the best thing since sliced bread so he kept going. His next victim was a man about his age coming on the bus with a cane. So he shouts from the back of the bus to the front and says:

"Make room for him to sit. Let the colored boi sit" The man with the cane politely refuses but the other guy just wouldn't quit, he says "You don't wanna sit you think you young, boi? I guess you like Moses" ETC ETC

Now I ask you, which do think would've been worst? This guy being white saying these things or a black man saying these things? Well sorry to disappoint you but this guy was 100%..........BLACK. It's a DAMN SHAME in this day and age that this kind of slavery mentality still exists.

A BLACK man calling BLACK people colored, like they have some type of disease. I don't understand this type of Self-Hatred at all. People make the color of their skin define who they are, like being a particular shade makes them less of a person. I see this in everyday life, people who tan because they are too light, people who bleach because they are too dark, and people who avoid the sun to refrain from becoming darker. I mean IS THIS A JOKE?? When we die we all become bones, our flesh rots away and we are no longer a color. So why is so much emphasis being placed on color while we are alive? Why are black people so against one another even after slavery? Shouldn't we work harder to build each other up, so that we can regain all that was lost and then some?

I am black and I found this man to be repulsive, he is a hindrance to my existence and success. It's a shame to see a person like this spewing negativity and doubting how far someone who is of color can reach in life. I had another encounter a few years back at my job with a woman who had the same mindset as this man. The woman asked me a question about the store policy and I told her everything that needed to be known. She wasn't satisfied with my answer even though I was one of the best at my job. She turns to me and tells me "You are not a manager, never will be. Black people cannot be managers". At that time, I exploded and let her have it because how dare you as a Black woman tell someone who has the same skin tone this trash. How do you motivate your children to go to school. People like this are the reason why black kids only look forward to "copping" jordans, listening to trash, naming their babies, and making guest appearances on Maury to tell their partner they're cheating.What happened to the Martin Luther Kings, the Rosa Parks, Malcolm X's? Do they exist anymore?

Can we as people do better? Of course we can, but only if we change our mindset and support one another. I can go on and on about this subject but to sum it all up in the words of James Brown: "Say it LOUD, I'm BLACK and I'm PROUD"

Signed,

An Average and Black New Yorker

AvgNYer@gmail.com