Believe in yourself and your worth

I love being black; however, I do not like the word minority because we (Blacks) are the majority on this planet. White American's love that word minority. How can a person of color that is a part of the collective ? majority of the people of color on this planet, be a minority?

Iadapt very well in this country, but I am older and I have seen true racism in this Country and I have dealt with it head on since the age of 5 years old.

When I was five, a friend and I, were throwing rocks and he, a white boy; had hit a car.

He had the presence of mind to run, However; I felt guilty and stayed. I was stuck like a deer in headlights. The driver screeched his tires, backed up and opened the passenger side door and said. "GET IN NIGGER"

I proceeded to walk towards him to get in his vehicle but the thought suddenly hit me of what my mother, ( May she rest in peace) had always told all her children. She said "that if someone ask me to get in there car "DON'T DO IT. DO NOT GET IN. The year was 1967 in Indiana a place full of good ol boys.

My True story that happened in 1973

I have mentioned that I used to sell candy from the age of 10-13 and some of you have read my confrontations with racism at that age. I had an experience in Muncie, IN one time when I was 11 yrs.

I can not begin to tell you how many times I would knock on the doors of these white family houses and hear a child, oftentimes, my own age;

Say," Mom or Dad there is a Nigger at the door. The Dad would often say, What does the Nigger want. (Response of the child) I don't know.

They responded by asking me, What do you want Nigger. I couldn't do anything but shake my head at that level of ignorance and uneducation as well as no class.

One time I was walking in some small town on a Saturday in a town the population of around 500 people, when suddenly this boy said "Mom hurry your'e going to miss it, Hurry Mom, Look, Look, do you see him, it is a real Nigger, he is not on T.V.

His mother replied, "Oh my God, I am so sorry".

I responded by saying " that is okay, clearly the kid needs to get out more often".

 I was selling out all of my items in an all-white lower middle class neighborhood. I saw no black families at all but this did not alarm me as I was accustomed to the disparity in races throughout my childhood sales career going door to door.

 I was alarmed by all of the warnings that these white people were giving me when I pulled out my wad of cash to make change. So many white people showed me support or empathy by purchasing my candy items and I loved them for it.

I felt great until 3 teenagers around 16-18 came walking pass me while I was selling my last few items and said “Hey Nigger you are on the wrong side of town,

The customer shouted to them to “leave him alone and get the Hell out of here”

Before they left down the street they yelled “Nigger we will get your ass when you get down the street boy.” I was terrified, at that age but I kept on walking and working all the while keeping an eye out for them.

Every house I went to was saying the same thing, “if anyone tries to hurt you just make it back to my house”.

 This ominous warning was really starting to make me alarmed because it meant that danger was imminent. I had faced this kind of warning before and I knew the signs.

Suddenly my boss showed up and I thought Thank God, but he saw how much I had sold and said OMG, you are doing great and he proceeded to pile more and more items in my box. (Greed of course) I told him that he needed to get me away from this area quickly. I explained the threat that those teenage boys had made about 30 minutes earlier was serious and they meant business.

I said that I have a bad feeling and he needs to move me to another area.

He said you are crazy and are just being paranoid, (Imagine that)
ignoring my pain and concern as many white people did back then.
  

He got in his car to leave and I knew that I had to do something so I picked the huge box of overloaded items and threw them onto the ground and started kicking them and telling him that I am not moving or attempting to sell anything else unless you move me from this spot.

He saw how determined I was and said get your ass in the car.

 When I got in and we started to drive up the street, a crowd of approximately 20-30 (A Mob) young teenage white boys had bricks and sticks and bats and weapons in their hands and when they saw me in the car“ they shouted, there the nigger is and they proceeded to beat his car as well as throwing huge bricks. while breaking his windshields in the process. Front and back windows!

He said "OMG Willie I am so sorry that I did not listen to you. I will never do that again". I was in shock and almost afraid to go to another neighborhood but I did get out in a different neighborhood to finish selling my products,as usual.

 I never forgot that day

I have since then come to the conclusion that there will always be a degree of racism in America but the encouraging part of that is that there will always be some good people of all races to offset and eliminate any chance of this country becoming an entirely racist society.

As Americans we believe in giving everyone an opportunity based on merit. At least the majority of us still believe this to be so.

I happened to ascribe to this principle even to this day.

 I think that the best strategy is to live in each other’s shoes and try to understand the other side. We need to find common ground to support or try to understand the other cultural side and at least attempt to identify with their perspective, rather than becoming dismissive like so many entitled people seem to do in the U.S

We have to realize that despite white entitlement in American culture, it is our job to educate people that their entitlement does not place them in a superior moral, or intellectual position.

We all have worth and value and actually can contribute something of monumental significance to this country,

if given the the opportunity to do so. unimpeded by trivial and infantile emotions such as racist obstruction.

This only places the entire country in a less than advanced position which can and will only stifle our growth as a nation