Late Night Leftovers…

So today I come to you partially huddled over a nice warm bowl of chicken, shrimp and sausage gumbo in my pj’s and feeling a little chaffed, due to 12 miles I ran this morning in drawls instead of boxers (TMI probably, but then this is the information highway and I’m not driving Miss Daisy)…  I knew better, and I can’t find my Gold Bond…  But I was reluctant to go running this am after going to bed late due to great conversation with a good friend over whats turning into my most favorite topics: race, economy, history and finances. Most of it is him schooling me, while I throw in a comment here or there so its not so evident that I ride around all day listening to Rich Gang when I know I need to “leave these beats alone and get my mind right!” So yeah, it’s been a minute sense I’ve gotten to discuss these topics. The last time I’ve had such pleasure lead me to order a slew of books such as “Inherently Unequal”, “Atlanta Paradox”, “The Sins of Our Fathers” and others I can’t recall right now as that first bowl of gumbo is running through my system spreading the “itis.”

The reason I find at least the whole race thing so intriguing is because of my own up bring. I grew up in a family of 4 not including my folks of which I am the oldest. We grew up in the small town of Westlake, La which is predominantly white and my folks finding Christ while I was around 10 and joining a nice sized church with predominantly white people made it easy for me to see life through white peoples eyes. And honestly, white people weren’t going to steer me into thinking about my own race unless I tried to holler at their daughters in most of instances. So I never really gave thought or seen blacks doing extremely well for themselves and others until I moved away. I mean I knew the slave narrative a few heroes and some basic knowledge of what they had done. I’d be lying if I’d say it was more than a handful of folk I knew. I had little knowledge and gave less thought to “the struggle”.  No idea of what “the system” is or what “the system” actually does to black folk. I mean I’m just now learning that the majority of blacks right after being emancipated were actually republican. And was informed by the homie last night that a great majority switched to the democratic vote after FDR and the great depression, as he sought to remedy the hurting economy with creating jobs (which seems to mean add two more floors to every government building and break down one federal job into 3 jobs and hire 2 more people to help that man) essentially giving them government jobs and creating bigger governement.

These things were oblivious to me, so I can’t get enough of wanting to learn about the struggle blacks overcame after being emancipated. And the drives they had to learn and have their own and show themselves respectable and equal to their peers. Willing and desiring to help one another while at the same time being glad that they actually had something instead of complaining about what they didn’t have or the mistreatment they still had to endure after being freed. It’s amazing to see the in-affect the emancipation had on the feelings of white people. They still continued to degrade on some levels and show disrespect or partiality, just like today. The difference was that then we expected it and so super-grinded to prove we were better. I mean, the grind wasn’t far from them anyway cause just the day before they was in “Massahs Field” from sun up till late after sun down in some cases. And then whats even crazier is once being freed many slaves got jobs and then sent food, clothes and in some cases money to their former owners who couldn’t now make ends meet due to their dependence on their slaves. Right now I’m just rambling. But if you follow me on social media perhaps now you’ll have an idea of where some of my status updates come from.

I promise I had planned to come on and talk about other things like how I’d bought a tea kettle this week after months of saying I would and am now trying to perfect my hot tea making skills. Or about some new encouragement I’ve gotten in scripture while reading through the bible in a year with my church. Was gonna give a shout out to a coworker at the warehouse where I work who put me up on game about my own ratchetry and how it could be responsible for me not being able to move around in the company. But alas, today’s blog has gone long enough and I swore to myself that at it’s re-inception I wouldn’t waste a lot of time planning it out as I more importantly want to get into the habit of doing one consistently while allowing myself time to execute meaningful topics and themes.  I do however want to give you the opportunity to suggest reads or documentaries on the subjects addressed above. Or bring correction or light to something I may be errant on. All communication is welcome. Thanks for coming through and you will be pleased to know that I did find my gold bond by the time I had finished writing this, which was all in one setting. I leaned back in my computer chair and there it was on top of the computer desk next to the printer. Ha Ha… Relief at last! Deuces 😉

~ by dac1224 on January 11, 2015.