"It's marketing," the lawn care company owner said. "The customer knows I speak English. And that is why I get a lot of calls."
When I turned the camera off, the lawn company owner began to joke.
"Lawn care by white people," he said jokingly.
I said come on man, say that on camera.
"No man," he replied laughing. "I can't do that."
But I know what he meant. It was another attention getter. You see, you rarely see white people doing lawn servicing in these parts.
When we understand that prejudice and racism are tools, nothing more, we will be able to work on the real issues that hurt our society. When we grow up, we will see that our plutocracy ensures we are divided in order to maintain power. If we are fighting each other we cannot take back what they have stolen.
When I got back into the car, my wife was a little put-off.
"You should not approach people in that way in these days," she said. "You are a black man. He could have pulled out a gun, said he feared you, killed you, and you know he would get off."
She is right that that could have happened. She is right about the likely conclusion of said eventuality. As a blogger, I try to size things up when interacting with strangers as best I can and as safely as I can with my approach. The one thing I will not succumb to is a crippling fear as that is what prevents us from making progress. That is how we maintain the status quo. We must all engage.
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