STORY TIME: My Discussion on race with a Somalian Man
About ten years ago I was in the waiting room at the car dealership while my car was being serviced. I was just sitting there minding my business, drinking water and listening to my MP3 player when this young Somalian man; about my age, came and sat down across from me. I was about 26 or 27 at the time. At first he tried to holler but I immediately shut that shit down and let him know that you are barking up the wrong tree on SO MANY levels. But I digress. After we got that out of the way; the conversation was pretty good. I thought…”What the hell, I have about a two-hour wait…I’ll entertain this convo.” Even though I didn’t ask he told me about living in Somalia and originally moving to Minneapolis before moving here to Columbus, Ohio. Oh yeah…and of course he was a rapper. Go figure! After a while, I’m thinking the conversation (or one-sided conversation at this point) is over then he totally messes up. The shit went FAR LEFT! He thinks that it’s a good idea to start talking HORRIBLY about black american people. I already knew that Somalian’s and some African’s already look down on the black american race, but this dude really thought he was kicking knowledge to me about…me. I let him talk for a while but I was actually gathering my thoughts in how I was going to get his ass together.
He started out by saying that black people should be ashamed of themselves for being so disrespectful to the white man after all he has done for us. He gave us jobs, houses, let us start families, go to school…I mean he kept going on. So just that statement alone let me know where this conversation was going and I checked out of it immediately. So of course I got his ass together, but we know they don’t really respect women and their opinions; especially a black woman seeing how he views black people in general. I just had to walk away, but first I gave him a quick 5 minute history lesson and highlighted the oppression of black people from being stolen, made into slaves all the way to the present…well ten years ago but you get my point. I let him know what black people in this country have been through for hundreds of years. The white man has done absolutely nothing for us. What black people have built has been built on our own backs. I have no tolerance for you coming over here and telling me about my people’s struggle that you know absolutely nothing about.
He only felt this way because of what he has been taught about black american people. They also feel that they have struck gold because they were ‘allowed’ in this country, not knowing they were bought too. Just not turned into slaves. So it made me think…this is how we’re viewed around the world. Especially by those from Africa. And everyone wants to go back to the motherland…miss me with that. A great deal of our ‘brothers and sisters’ from Africa have no respect for us at all, but we cape for them so hard. Black people don’t get any respect across the world because of how we’re presented to the world. The media is the devil. We have been created to look like monsters. People from other countries think that we just do drugs, steal, live off the government, along with so many other things…and of course are ungrateful and disrespectful to the white man. Yep…that’s how we’re viewed. I’m sorry but the damage has been done. I for one don’t care what anyone else thinks of me, but I will get you together if you get out of line. Even with a black president, we still get no respect. There are plenty of foreign leaders that like President Obama, but black people are still viewed as bad people. Many of these countries don’t like american’s in general but we as black people are at the bottom of the barrel.
I’m not sure if that man I was talking to ten years ago still lives in the United States…particularly Columbus. If he does, I’m sure his perception of the ‘white man’ has changed tremendously. It was cute at first because they ‘allowed’ you to move here, but now you see that you and your people are nothing but another black face around here as well. A black foreign face at that. They don’t like your black ass either. Like I mentioned earlier…the damage is done because even as I type this post today…we’re still the ones oppressed yet we’re still viewed as the villains. We’re still fighting to be treated as equals in a country that we built and have had success in. So why are we still fighting for rights? What has been given to us? So him and anyone else that thinks this way…like I always say…’reading is fundamental’ the same way that Google is your friend. Before you speak out your ass…have some substance to it and know what you’re talking about; especially before you approach someone like me talking non-sense. Should I fault him because he just wasn’t educated properly…yes I should. What would make him think that he could talk to me about something like that? You’re going to flat out dog black people right to my face. Did he think that I was going to agree with him and just keep it pushing? So everything that came out of my mouth…he completely deserved what he got.
