When the Europeans brought Slaves to America, from Africa, it was only a reflection of the time in which they lived. Africa sold slaves in those barbaric times and America bought them.
President Lincoln freed the slaves out of fear. Lincoln was losing the war and needed men and fast. His freeing of the slaves won his war effort so in a way, the Black man saved what we know to be, the United States of America.
The Slaves were free to live their lives but many Whites at that time still saw these men and women as animals, slaves, or just a lower class. These horrific times would last as long as the sixties where a new age of thinking would rear its head. Protests and fighting would help in the struggles for the black man to be seen as equal to any man.
The Blacks now teaming with some liberal Whites fought segregation tooth and nail and won. Today, although there are many old school whites and Blacks still thinking in such a way that their ancestors did so many years ago, we have finally reached equality laughing at those who still see things in black and white.
We live in harmony and for a few that are fighting the fight of yesteryear; they are still living in the past. Blacks and whites have come a long way but their are still small battles but for the most part of life, we see each other as men and women nothing more. The following is a story I had written in 1972 to try and make the boneheads still living in the past see that there caveman mentality is not welcome in today’s society.
The older white man sits on his front porch rocking himself to sleep. His name is Harry, Harry Conklin. He has been living in that house his grand paw built since he was a small child. His Grandfather had servants helping out, usually blacks, it was the times.
The south is a warmer climate but not to dry this time of year. His eyes almost shut as he sucked on a piece of straw; Harry hears a car pull over to the curb in front of his home. Harry watched as an older black man steps out of the car and opens the hood. “Damn, overheating.” The man walks up to Harry’s porch and asks to use his water hose. Harry seems to ignore the man in need pretending he was sleeping.
“Did you hear me, I asked to use your hose, please sir, my car, it’s overheating and…”
“I heard you boy, my water hose tends to bebroken for some reason or another.”
“Please Mr. I only need some water and I will be on my way. A small bucket will do. I am not looking for trouble”
“I guess you’re the one with the hearing problem nigger, now git before I do something you will regret”
The tired old black man stood and waited a second, he started to turn and walk away but something made him turn and face Harry again.
“Listen, Mr. This is your house, and you can give me the water or you can not, thats your right. I need to get out of this god forsaken place, but you have no right. I let it pass when you called me boy, I guess that’s the way around these parts, but you have no right to call me nigger. I am a man, same as you.”
“Oh, that’s right, you people can call yourselves niggers all you want but when I do it, that’s a bad thing. Oh get out of here and take that junk heap with you. The water hole is closed but lets get one thing straight, you aint no man, you an animal so go find a watering hole somewheres else.”
“Oh, no you don’t. We call ourselves nigger to remind us how stupid that word really is. We know if we say it often enough it will lose its evil tones. Yes, we use the word nigger to remind us that we still have a ways to go, and for what, people like you who live in fear? We were brought here against our will; we were taken as slaves to do all your dirty work Yes I call my brother nigger for a different reason then you call me that word. You use it to degrade me and I am a man just as you are a man. No, you can’t call me nigger, you haven’t earned that right, and you will never earn that right until you walked a mile in my shoes. Seen what I have seen, the likes of your kind. No mister, you keep your precious water, I will manage without the likes of you. Nigger, No sir, you just aint got the right. I am not ignorant, just a man in this world just as you trying to do what’s right. I know you will never be able to understand this but you and your kind are the true niggers of this world.”
“You people just like to cause trouble. You come here into my neighborhood asking me for things? Go burn down your towns, you people love to do that. Animals, just animals, that’s all you are. Making babies and leaving, thats all you do.”
“You call me animal, and yet I have to laugh. I went to school and I work a job. My momma, God rest her blessed soul, worked two jobs so I can get educated. I made something out of my life. I know how to treat my neighbors but as long as I live, something inside of me still feels the need to call you sir. I reapect all people and I can see you are no different then me even if you can’t.”
“Sure you do, you are a hate monger, a militant, a trouble maker, just like the rest of you animals.”
“No sir, I am a Doctor, at a big city hospital. I make more money in a week then you will ever see in your lifetime. I cure people, all people, of all walks of life. I don’t turn any man away because his skin is different then my skin. No sir, you keep your water, and your life. People like you are a dying breed. I can’t stand the sight of you. My car is cooled down enough, I’ll be going now, and trust me, a pleasure this was not. I’ll get water someplace else and you sir have a nice day.”
The man turns and walks away. He reaches for the door handle of his car and a single shot rings out. Harry with a smoking rifle in his hand just watches as the man fumble with the door handle then falls to the ground. Harry runs over to the man and places his wallet in the mans hand and tossed his watch and some money around the lifeless body.
A neighbor walks out on his porch and says, “Harry, are you ok?” Harry replies, “Yeah, some nigger tried to rob me, I guess he didn’t know who he was dealing with did he Buck.” “No sir, Harry, we wont have any of that here, so sir.” Buck hollared.
The man lying in a pool of his own blood opens his eyes and with his last breath says, “I knew, I knew exactly who I was dealing with.” Then he closes his eyes drawing his last breath.
The sheriff happens by and sees the back man lying on the ground shot dead. He turns to the old Harry and asked what had happened. Harry tells him his tale of lies, and starts to head back up his stairs as if he did a public service for his community. Just then he clutches his heart and falls to the ground.
The sheriff ran to his aid and sees that the man is having a heart attack. He carried him to his police car and rushes him to the small hospital in town. He lays on a gurney waiting for help desperately. A doctor starts massaging the mans heart. A nurse comes over to help as they roll him into the operating room. The doctor yells, “Where is the heart specialist, I can’t save this guy I’m just a family doctor. Where the hell is Doctor, Johnson?” The nurse says, “Oh, haven’t you heard, the ambulance just rolled him in. He was shot dead.”
Harry heard what the nurse said, as he lie their dying and their was no one person educated enough to save him. “Mr. Johnson, the Heart Doctor only comes to town once a week from the big city, he did that out of the goodness of his heart, to help others. The nurse said as she made Harry comfortable. Harry seemed to be looking at the nurse but then she realizes, leans in and closes his eyes. “We lost him. she added.
We must see that there are only two types of people in the world, men and women. Color should never be an issue for that only shows where we are from not who we are. Anyone who still has issues with color is only blind by their fears and ignorance. God created all men and women the same and until we can all see this, we will always have the few that are so blind through ignorance.
Please leave a comment good or bad so we can expose the truth. What we have here is a whole lot of pride, over something that happened so long ago, and really had nothing to do with us as a people today. A wise man once said, “There is none so blind who can only see color, then those with eyes so wide open they can see the character and further the horizon for all mankind.” Caterino
GOD BLESS ALL MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN