Tuesday, July 19, 2016

I ran into two racists of different colors last week...

I ran into two racists of different colors last week...

I always preface Blogs like this one I'm about to write by saying I'm neither White nor a person of color, and I'm also both at the same time. I'm a half breed, a mixed race American, sort of like the Samaritans in the Bible story Jesus told. They were half breeds, mixed race like me only 2,000 years ago. My Mom is half Hispanic and half Chinese, and my Dad is of English and Scottish descent. Because of my mixed race status I sometimes feel like a fly on the wall watching people of different races bicker back and forth and thinking "How stupid...why can't we just all call ourselves Americans."

In the last week I've witnessed and heard two very distinct and very racist comments...both were pointed in my direction...I heard these racist comments that were said by strangers I've never met not by anyone I know or have known or have ever worked with... I'll just say however that one person was white, and the other person was black...both uttered very racist comments within close earshot of yours truly...One young man at an event I was performing at last weekend (Colorado Black arts Festival) said as I was getting my musical equipt. out of my car "Watchout!, there's a wasps nest right there!" Now, myself being the naive half breed mixed race white looking person that I am thought nothing of that comment until about a minute later when I realized that a mixed race couple was walking towards me through the gate... A white woman with a black man, and I was there getting my horns out of the car, and I realized..."this guy was referring to W.A.S.P.S. as in White Anglo Saxon Protestants, in his wasps nest comment. I realized it was an incredibly demeaning, degrading and racist joke aimed at white people...which would include me and the white woman with her black husband...There was no wasps nest in the immediate vicinity, it was a crude and ignorant attempt at racial humor.

The second incident happened after I had driven 70 miles north towards home after a performance where I stopped at a 7/11 to get a Free Slurpee on Free Slurpee day...A white woman came into the store looking for the same thing I was looking for, the free slurpee cups, and I decided to be nice and say "their here right on your right" and she cordially said "Thank you", but then I began chatting with the store clerk and said, "you guys are lucky, In Greeley earlier I was getting a free slurpee and one store had a line about 15 people long!" Immediately after I spoke that sentence the white woman said loudly "Good, those Greeley people can stay over there, keep them all over there!" I'm assuming the white woman was referring to the people of another race that tend to live in Greeley, or maybe she just meant Greeley people in general...

I didn't say that I lived near Greeley myself I just let her continue in her stupefying ignorance and prayed for the woman silently...Now, I've encountered racists before in my life...as a half breed American that LOOKS white some people look at me and start making racist comments to me about a particular race, not realizing that I'm part of THAT OTHER races camp, as well as the ignorant person telling me the racist bigoted jokes camp as well...It just comes with the territory of being a half breed American.

But I have NEVER heard what I would consider racist comments in about a two to three day stretch, coming from two different racial types one white, and one black and so very blunt in your face racist, bigoted comments without so much as a hint of fear or repentance, or "Gee maybe I shouldn't have said that" from these two racists of different colors...perhaps these two very distinct racists thought about what they said later...perhaps they didn't even care or think about what they said at all, But I can only pray that they will

. I've spent most of my Musical career as a Gospel, Jazz, Funk, Rock and Roll saxophone player attempting to build some kind of bridge between races using my musical abilities, whether it was in Funky little bars or In Stadiums for close to 100,000 people. It saddens and discourages me to see we haven't seemed to improve race relations much (even though it appeared so in the 1980's-2000's) But this my friends is why I continue to say as I've stated here numerous times, that racism and bigotry comes in all colors, sadly...