It’s time you moved up-
here is your challenge.
This is a dangerous write
and there are no revisions.
Do it well and you’ll be known as
the brave poet;
unafraid of risks; silently loved of a few,
loudly despised of many others.
You will lose readers
and maybe friends too.
In high school my older sister made friends with a girl who moved here from Oregon. They lived in the same semi-posh brick neighborhood we did. They spent the summer together going to church and playing volleyball- My sister’s friend, her name Krystal, was quite good and filled her cotton shorts quite well for us 13 year old boys. None of use were slick enough to not get caught looking.
After the 2nd week of school, Krystal came over for dinner one night and said “This guy wants to take me out before football season starts- Calvin, plays linebacker, big chested, nice arms…His cousin likes you, I think. Let’s double on Friday.”
Calvin and his cousin were
black.
“Uh…..that’s okay,” said sissy with eyes slightly rolled.
“Why not? You don’t have a boyfriend!” Krystal answered back.
“I don’t date black guys.”
“What’s wrong with black guys? Oh, I forget, we’re in Mississippi…”
“I’d say no to them if we lived in Oregon.”
“But that’s racist!” Krystal pleaded.
“Well, first, I’m not attracted to them anyway, but even if I did, it’s just a bad idea for white girls to date them.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Skin color doesn’t matter!”
I stopped eating my lasagna to listen to this incredible conversation while my father, who had finished dinner already, sat in his recliner with the evening paper. There was a strong thunderstorm in the area with hail and lightning. Yet he remained in his chair, unphased during the storm and also during this conversation, though acutely aware of both.
More on father- he was that ultra rare combo of Sunday school teacher and defense attorney. I’d heard him raise his voice once in my life and that was to shoo a stray dog away from the house.
“Daddy, do you want to tell her or should I?” asked my sister.
In his Atticus Finch tone, father replied, “It is not my place to educate the children of others. I have taught the truth to mine in this, my house. Anymore than this is futility.”
“What truth?” asked Krystal to father.
“I don’t think you’d be receptive.”
“I’ll listen,” she prodded.
“Alright. You made the comment that skin color doesn’t matter, suggesting that there is no difference in black and white cultures, correct?”
“Yes.”
“If that were true, then there would be no such large discrepancies between the amount of blacks in prison vs. that of whites. It is 6.6 times more likely for a black man to enter prison than a white man (1).”
“You’re thinking about some ghetto thug. I don’t want to date those either.”
“Very good. But you did just say there was no difference between blacks and whites. Another frightening statistic is that chlamydia is 8 times higher in black people than in white people and that gonorrhea is 19 times higher (2). Black men only comprise 13% of the population but almost half of new HIV cases (3). Many people with sexually transmitted diseases look perfectly healthy and prophylactic use just isn’t sufficient in my opinion, not when subjected to the risk such extreme consequences.”
“So all black people are just thugs running around with the clap?” she answered sarcastically.
“Of course not. But the most discouraging statistic there is comes from the last government census. How many black people that you know grew up with both of their biological parents?”
She had no answer for that one.
“The number of black children that grew up in the same house with their biological mother and father is less than one-tenth that of white children (4). You see, I’ve discouraged my daughter from dating in a community of people where there is such widespread abandonment.”
“I don’t think it matters if the biological mother and father raise the baby. It just matters that there is a father figure present. I mean, look around, plenty of people grow with stepdads and turn out just fine. It’s no big deal.”
At this point, I couldn’t restrain. “Yeah, well I don’t want her after she’s been bitten by that Alabama black snake!”
“Sonny!” Someway he made even his growls seemed dignified. I knew to get quiet.
“Life for single mothers is very cumbersome and for a white woman with a half black child it will be miraculous for her to have a decent quality of life. And I don’t want that for my daughter. My opinion has cost me black friends, but at the point of my child, so be it. Christ said ‘woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you (5).’ ”
“Her baby being half black shouldn’t matter either! 98% of all interracial dating is with a white guy and a black girl.”
At this point we all realized there was an intellectual invalid among us. Father smiled graciously and said “I see, dear. Enjoy your lasagna and your date Friday.” He knew the great waste in trying to teach wisdom to an idiot.
Some years later, my sister married a banker in town. They live two neighborhoods over from the home we grew up in. Father and his son-in-law fish pretty often. When father talks about secrets of fishing in eddybacks, he listens like a good student. They like each other.
Krystal did get pregnant by Calvin before high school’s end. She earned her GED and is trying to get through nursing school at the local community college while her parents and her work together to raise young Michael. Saw the family at the last carnival on my last break from college. He is a darling little rascal I admit. Curly hair, hazel eyes. They seemed okay. I offered to get some cotton candy for him. Calvin was nowhere to be found and though I wanted to know his whereabouts, I chose not to ask.
Well, there it is.
You accepted the poetry challenge.
You took a stance that most
are too afraid to make
Or too lazy to research.
Using scripture was risky, not only because
God might not like you dragging him into this,
but you might have sounded preachy.
But either way, you will be known as
the Brave Poet
Even if there be some
who will not acknowledge it.
Kiln, MS – 5/12/09
1.http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/pimjim08stpr.htm
2.http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/STDFastFacts-3.27.09-508%20Compliant.pdf
3.http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/resources/factsheets/aa.htm
4.http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p70-114.pdf
5.The Holy Bible- Luke 6:26
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Submission Name: Therapy in a High Risk Poem
