Barbara Eden. Late 1960's. In those days bowling alleys were manned by brown boys who were picking up the pins, arranging them and sending the balls back. Often white boys would make sport of trying to crack the boy's ankles with a bowling ball while they hurried to set the pins up. Those of us with melanin were stunned in our silence, but brutality was a common virtue of white boys. They were protected from consequences. We all knew it. But, if their strange humor touched us physically it was a fight, a fist fight. I know history books and documentaries about Jim Crow in the South are aglow with stories of Colored men and boys submissive and scared of resisting white men or their sons.
That was true. But, there were a lot of fist fights between white and Black boys. Even Indian boys would fight them white boys. I did. Had some hard fights. As skinny as I was I fought 'em because their humor is always on the brink of violence and you had to make sure it didn't trickle down to your siblings. It is why I never liked Saturday NIght Live!
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7.5.15
No comments:
Post a Comment