There I have shared some of the high points in my recent existence with you, but I want you to know that I am always on the job – operating on autopilot. When the clerk at the department store interrupt waiting on a black customer to make eye contact with the next white person in line to give assurance that she will be served before the current customer is completed, that’s the me in his head at work. When there’s an altercation and the white policemen arrive on the scene and arrest the black victim and not the white perpetrator – I am alive. When the car dealer or realtor adds the hidden black tax to the deal, I toil in shrouded wakefulness. When local governments under fund schools in black areas, they invoke my presence. I’m manifested in various everyday means and it’s these seemingly small symptoms that are my bloodline until the next big case.
Although I’ve never been publicly exonerated once the truth emerged, there were times when only the truth survived. The young white mother finally admitted to drowning her sons and led the authorities to the gruesome site in the lake where their bodies lie clinging to each other in the back seat of her car submerged in the watery lie she told. Then they forgot about me. The powerful New York politician made another more successful try for death and they called off the search for me. The unfaithful husband in Boston finally ensnared by his lies went back to that bridge and after his flight from it, joined his wife and unborn son in a way that precluded my being hunted down.
Now I look toward my long and eventful future with eagerness and anticipation. I never know when I’ll be called upon again in a major way, only that I will indeed, be called.
Article comments
1 - taurus47
On January 20, 2009 Barack H. Obama became the first African American President of the United States. Yes, there is racism in these United States and we should not forget tht, but there is also hope. Of course we need to remember the past, but we also need to look at our actions that feed into the myths, stereotypes and just plain lies about us. We could pull up our pants, tie our shoes, stop producing and buying crude music that is disrespectful to our women and our people, stop using the "N" word, stop putting poison (food and drugs) into our bodies, persue higher education and stop being so ever loving angry all the time. This is 2009!!!
2 - Horace Mungin
Yes, there are many self-afflicted wrongs in the black community and I hope to get to write about some of them in the course of things - this article,a careful read will reveal,is not about those those self-afflicted problems.
3 - roger nowosielski
Beautiful writing, Horace. Echoes Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
I'm really surprised you have received so few comments thus far. I suppose the political junkies don't have much appreciation or use for fine literature.
You should try to have this piece re-posted in "literature" section (but unfortunately, we don't have one); or in "culture" perhaps.
I really loved it.
4 - Horace Mungin
"Fairy tales," what fairy tales? To me a fairy tale is a fabrication - there is none of that in this peice. I didn't intent this article to be an example of racist dogma, I merely chunched a brick in the dark to see who would screem - I ain't blaming anyone for anything and I protest the removel of AlterEgo's posts - please return them - they are essential to the point my article makes.
5 - Baronius
The big tip-off is that most people, if their comments are deleted from a site, would leave in a huff and never return. H&C keeps coming back and asking why his comments are deleted. Next, typically, is his "who is this JOM person you're talking about" phase. Anyone else getting called by the "wrong" name would just assume that the commenters are jerks, and quit. He sticks with it.
I find in unfortunate that H&C cannot play well with others, because I bet that his commentary about Obama would be hilarious.
6 - Jet Gardner
That and a lack of a back URL... Who is H&C?
7 - Jet Gardner
Is it me or is everyone on Pacific time now?
Who is JOM????
8 - roger nowosielski
I think it's too reasoned for H&C. He wears his prejudices on his sleeve and no apologies of any kind. That's what kind of "charming" about him, never mind the lesser characters.
9 - Jet Gardner
Ah, then it was me, probably the title of this article threw me :)
10 - Aaron Whitehead
Horace --
Enjoyed the story. Reminds me of a lot of August Wilson's characters.
It is odd to me that, like #1, many people point to Obama as president as if to say "it's over" or "at least things are better!" But that doesn't seem to me to be what Horace is saying. For so many people -- white and black -- things haven't changed. They don't change just because there's a Republican or a Democrat in the White House and they don't change because of the color of their skin.
I think if you want to refute the essence of the piece, you have to argue that Horace's character doesn't exist, and that what he describes as reality is not, in fact, real. That is very, very difficult.
And I don't know what black-on-black crime has to do with this. A little elaboration is in order.
Speaking as a white male who is in favor of moral -- if not political -- correctness, I think we need to start talking about our big, unspoken fears and desires. And we need to stop looking for a quick fix -- a presidential election or an elaborate burial of a racial slur -- to a complex problem.
To quote Shambala Green on "Law & Order," "Putting a picture of Bobby Kennedy on your wall isn't enough anymore."
11 - Christopher Rose
Horace and whoever else may be interested:- The comments made by the person hiding behind the AlterEgo name is already banned from Blogcritics and has only managed to sneak in here because of the ongoing tech issues.
He and his comments will be gone soon so please don't waste your time or mine by engaging with him.
12 - Jet Gardner
Horace, a bit long but a good read none the less... minus the distractions of course
13 - roger nowosielski
Why, Jet. I think it was very descriptive.
Have you ever read "Invisible Man" by Ellison?
14 - Jet Gardner
Roger I wasn't talking about distractions within the article. and yes I have a copy of it here somewhere withing my hundreds of books I own, but it's been a lonnnnnnng time since I read it.
15 - roger nowosielski
I get you!
16 - Jeannie Danna
Hello Horace, I really like your style . It is crisp and to the point. You are so right about the white fools in this country running to the Republican Party for the wrong reason. My father taught me at a young age to treat all people with respect and not to clump one another together and label with tags. So I am trying hard not to do that to all these white fools running to the Republican party! I like your use of the word slippery and I wish aliens would come from outer space so we could all get together to fight THEM!
17 - roger nowosielski
Horace,
Would it be OK if I were to republish your article on my own weblog?
You can check the site by clicking on my url.
Roger
18 - Horace Mungin
Roger- publish on, my brother.
19 - roger nowosielski
Thanks. And I will provide all the references once done.
20 - William Carter
Excellent read. I remember you talking with me about that some time ago. It's as though the politicians are playing both sides against each other while they pursue their own agenda.
21 - Horace Mungin
5/26/09 â€" The Phantom Culprit and accomplice accused of abducting white mother and daughter â€" both later found at Disney World.