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Hi to all…
I joined this pod because of Heyok's blog.
How do I feel about this issue?
There are certain issues which you think nobody needs to talk about, 'cause everything has been said about it.. but still…it's stil going on….
As I was 18 y.o. I came to live in the US for two years. I rented a flat in L.A. and my first friends were my direct neighbours: two black guys. One of the same age and another of 60 y.o. I invited them to my place, innocently, we ate together.. they invited me to their flats..we listened to music…talked… nothing special. After 3 months I got friend with a white guy… we had fun.. I invited him to my place..he invited me… it was nice. We were all living in the same building.
After six months some white people in the building started to tell me…not directly… but in a disguised manner, that people around were looking at me in a bizarre way, 'cause I was friends with black people in the building.
This was a shock to me. I was discovering America! I was discovering the hidden rules of a country, neighbourood, building! Anyway.. I did not change my way. You know what happened? White people used to come to my flat with black people… but they all (black and white) came in as if it had to be a secret. We had marvellous evenings.
And suddenly, I became colour consciouss! I noticed there were no mixed race couple in the streets! A second shock!
I'm from Switzerand, and racism is well alive here. But mixed colour couples is an accepted fact.
This is to much for my head!
Assholitis is colour blind… so is illumination.
And I have to state here again my “credo”: it has nothing to do with colours, gender, creeds: it is a conscioussness level thing.
After my experience in the US, I went to London for a year. I was a musician at the time. I auditioned for a lot of bands, but I fell in love with an African band. They were from Ghana and Nigeria. It was a good band and I was the only white! They gave me an African name: “Kofi”, due to my day's birth. And we played and played and played…I spent days with them, trying to figure out their cultural rules.
They were all calling each other “brother”, except me. And I didn't know why! I prayed with them, I ate their food (turkey tales…), They hooked me up with a black girl… but still… I was not a brother.
One day, I was so angry at them, 'cause they were all late at the rehearsal. Not late as in ten minutes, but late as in an our and a half (African time is different). So I calculated and said to myself “OK.. I'm going to show up later than all of them: two hours late! The'y ll understand that I'm angry”.
So I did! They were all there! I showed up, full of anger, ready to make a scene.
To my surprise, they all greeted me with a hearfelt “OOH…Kofi…my brother”. I was In!
All my anger went away.. Since then I was ” a brother”. It's funny when you go somewhere and when a black guy introduces you to someone and says “and here's my brother”.
Maybe they greeted me in to diffuse my anger… maybe because I was able to set my watch at African time… I don't care.
Although my life took a different turn, I still have an African family, somewhere in London.
My African family still lives in me through my love for African music (I'm a fan).
But I'm not into idealization either…and I'm a staunch critisizer of black amerian culture as it behaves at the moment.
As for music… check out the marvellous Roberta Flack, and the recent and wonderfull poetess Ursula Rucker.
Patrick
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