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But, now, due to the permission of Herr Trump, the dogs
of ugly have been fed and released and now it is seemingly
fair game to mentally and emotionally harass any person,
brown or black.
It is as almost there is now a latent conspiracy by
some white folks to make life for black and brown people as
difficult as possible in the hopes that they will act out
their frustrations and be arrested by the called cops or
they will return and retreat to their "own" spaces and allow
white folks to rule the roost.
The following incidents are for you consider as either
being hostile or just an "innocent" mistake by some white
people who are on edge about seeing anything move that has
two arms and two legs and a head and is colored brown or
black.
SCENE ONE: A Puerto Rican goes to the local gas company in
Boston and presents his ID for purposes of getting gas
turned on in his name at his new condo.
The white clerk takes his ID, copies it and goes to the back
room. She is gone for about 10 minutes and all the while the
applicant waits and wonders and especially so when he sees
white applicants come in, apply, get service and they leave.
But yet, he is still waiting.
Eventually, two police officers arrive and accost him
and ask for a second piece of ID. When he asks what is going
on, he is told to shut up and produce the ID or he will be
charged with obstructing official business. The applicant,
in order to avoid a scene, produces his military ID and the
police run a check on it and it is in order.
They give him back his ID and leave in a huff.
He waits for the clerk to come back with his first ID.
She returns and looks all sheepish and nervous. When the
applicant asks her what was that all about, she says that he
looked like a person who was stealing gas services and whose
picture was posted on her suspect list.
He asks for her manager so he can see this so-called,
"list." The manager comes out and the long and short of it
is that there is no such list. The clerk in question called
the police because the Puerto Rican looked, "quirky."
SCENE TWO: A black woman goes to a Cadillac car dealer to
test drive a brand new car. She is accompanied by her
sorority sister. The salesman, a white guy with a nasal
problem, asks to copy her license before he can put dealer
plates on for the test run.
The lady, who is employed as an software engineer and with a
salary hitting past $150k per year, complies.
Eventually the two black ladies get into the 2018
Cadillac CSW model (retail: $65K) and drive off the lot.
Unknown to them, the salesman gets into his car and follows
them at a discreet distance. The two ladies drive the car in
both residential and highway traffic. After about 20 minutes
of test driving, the salesman calls the police to report a
stolen vehicle.
The two ladies are stopped at a busy intersection and,
with guns drawn, the police force them out of the car, onto
the asphalt pavement and they are handcuffed.
The salesman drives up and identifies the ladies as the two
people who took the car.
When pressed for details, the salesman admits that they
took the car with his permission but he says that after 10
minutes, he felt uncomfortable with them continuing the test
drive and when he tried to call their cell number, no one
picked up.
The police take the ladies out of their squad car and
allow them to drive the costly car back to the dealership.
When they call corporate, they are told that they have never
heard of such a thing as a salesman tailing a test drive!
The ladies file a complaint and the potential Caddy buyer
goes to the BMV dealership and purchases a new car.
SCENE THREE: J.J. goes to a local nursery store to get bags
of mulch for his large yard.
Upon arriving, he notices a sale is going on for 10 bags of
mulch for 15 bucks. He says this is his lucky day! He goes
to the register and gets a receipt to pick up30 bags of
mulch.
He notices that similar customers are using a large
roller cart to get the mulch and load it up themselves, so
he does the same thing.
Almost half way through the loading process, store security
surrounds his pickup truck and orders him to halt and to
show his receipt.
Puzzled, J.J. says what for? He is told that a clerk
(white) is reporting that he is stealing the mulch. However,
this clerk is not the same clerk (black) that he paid the
monies to but is a clerk passing through and notices his
loading up the mulch among the other drivers (all white) who
are doing the same thing.
He refuses to show his ID and he is grabbed, thrown
against the car cab and handcuffed. The police show up and
when they see the receipts, they tell the security cops that
there is no case and they tell them to uncuff him and they
leave.
J.J. kicks out of his cargo hold the loaded mulch and
he does not load the rest of what he paid for.
SCENE FOUR: Carmen bought surprise birthday football tickets
for her two teenage sons. They are seats with a great view
and close to the action. They arrive at the stadium, show
their tickets and find their seats. Just before the game
starts, three white males show up and demand that they leave
since those are their seats!
Carmen shows them their ticket stubs and they match up
with her seats. The men do not leave but they start yelling
for security and calling Carmen and her boys ticket
thieves. The police arrive and ask Carmen for ID and to see
her stubs.
She reluctantly complies and lo and behold, the seats
for the white men are in Section K and not in her Section B
(the better seats). The police tell the men that they are in
the wrong and ask them to move on.
No one apologies to Carmen and her two boys. Everyone around
her tries to avoid eye contact with her. For her, the game
is ruined.
Is this the new America that black and brown people are
now living in wherein their very presence sets off police
alarms and they have to justify their presence or existence
to white people who assume the worse when it involves people
of color?
The emotional and mental exhaustion of always trying to
justify your rightful presence can take a toll on one's
psyche and can scar one's sense of self-worth.
Jim Crow is still flying high in these United States!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com
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