It’s dark. They’re walking home. The
wind is blowing in all directions and in a near distance a street lamp is flickering.
Yet, they’re feeling calm. A peaceful state of mind. Peace. Suddenly that sense
of serenity has ceased. Evaporated from existence like the thoughts of our last
president. They are now seeing a figure in front of them. Me. Walking toward them.
Closer. Closer. Then their thoughts blur. They find themselves walking much
faster now, just enough to give them some peace of mind that they’re getting
closer to their intended destination. So as they’re walking they veer closer to
the sidewalk and every few steps their foot slips into the grass. The figure is
getting closer. I am getting closer. They see my size and from this distance I
seem daunting, and I am only 5’ 8”. However my size is not the driving force of
their anxiety whether they quite realize this or not. And they hurry past me,
stressed and averting any possible eye contact. At this point I’ve figure out
that it’s happened again. I’ve used my power. She ran in fear. Another victim.
In some senses one may think of it as a
“super power”, but not like Super Man, Batman, or Spiderman. No. This is a
power bestowed upon what seems to be all people like me against their will. The
power to leave someone still, stricken with fear. The power to alter one’s
perception of space and time in dark places. The power to make someone move to
a destination at a much faster pace than they may have intended. The power to
make one assume that they’re are in danger. The power to make others a victim.
The power to make one prepare for the worst. Power.
So there she went, a young Caucasian
female. The common prey of someone from my kind. Another victim of the poison
that seems to secrete from my body. At least, that’s how society sees it. The
black man. The greatest plague to society. From my eyes I’m just an honest man
trying to do right by myself for myself, but our society sees me as the next OJ
Simpson or even Trayvon Martin. They claim racism isn’t alive but in fact
they’re just sealing it. There are always innuendos about slavery, stealing,
being unfaithful, being ratchet, ghetto, being a football player, a basketball
player, a rapper, and the whole time I’m just wondering, why I can’t just be
man? Just a black man. An upstanding, respectful, intelligent, black man.
It’s real simple, real simple. But it’s
been burned into the minds of our country. If someone has to take the fall,
blame it on the black man. And I’m not making this up. It’s evident everywhere
with everyone. If a person is in a crowd and looks different from everyone
else, they’re an outcast, there’s something wrong with them, hence the phrase
minority race. Because whether you realize your actions or not, we do. Nobody
in their right mind wants to walk this earth feared by the greater majority of
its inhabitants. I walk in small stores at times and immediately store owners
move toward their cameras, keeping an extra close eye on me, as if I’m about to
steal something from them. What I’m really saying is do not be so quick to
judge people just because of the circumstances, just because of what society
says, just because of their color. Because by doing so one would be feeding
these ideas and allowing them to corrupt society. They’d be giving it power.
And power corrupts, but it is absolute power that will in the end corrupts
absolutely.
