Sunday, November 16, 2003
So this black guy...
I realize that many of my blog entries have dealt with race and sexual orientation and I think this bears some explanation. In Louisiana race seems to play a role in everything. Not that there isn't a lot of self-segregation and division across these lines in California, but here it seems to dominate. It's just different.
For example, I was talking to a longtime cop the other day for an article and he was recalling a time where his police car broke down on the way to a call. He left his car in traffic, ran up to an MG waiting at a red light, hopped in the back and told the driver to floor it. It was a good story, along the lines of Hollywood cops commandeering vehicles, but the way he told it was interesting: "My car broke down and there were these black guys in a little MG..." Was he especially proud of finding such dark individuals on an unlit street? Or did he mean black in that in that listening to Morrissey, wearing trenchcoats and contemplating suicide kind of way? Well, I don't think he is a racist. In fact, I don't think he even registered that he mentioned their race. But he did, and it just seems to permeate everything here.
The weird thing is it's such an issue that nobody really talks about it, except in the manner I just mentioned. People will say, "This black guy this, this black guy that," but when I mention that the Indian-American gubernatorial candidate (who just lost a close election to his white Democratic foe) may have lost votes because he is brown, they are offended. And don't even try to bring up meaningful conversation about gay rights (it's actually technically illegal to be gay here - or at least have sex in a gay way).
But I feel qualified to talk about it because I've got this black friend...
For example, I was talking to a longtime cop the other day for an article and he was recalling a time where his police car broke down on the way to a call. He left his car in traffic, ran up to an MG waiting at a red light, hopped in the back and told the driver to floor it. It was a good story, along the lines of Hollywood cops commandeering vehicles, but the way he told it was interesting: "My car broke down and there were these black guys in a little MG..." Was he especially proud of finding such dark individuals on an unlit street? Or did he mean black in that in that listening to Morrissey, wearing trenchcoats and contemplating suicide kind of way? Well, I don't think he is a racist. In fact, I don't think he even registered that he mentioned their race. But he did, and it just seems to permeate everything here.
The weird thing is it's such an issue that nobody really talks about it, except in the manner I just mentioned. People will say, "This black guy this, this black guy that," but when I mention that the Indian-American gubernatorial candidate (who just lost a close election to his white Democratic foe) may have lost votes because he is brown, they are offended. And don't even try to bring up meaningful conversation about gay rights (it's actually technically illegal to be gay here - or at least have sex in a gay way).
But I feel qualified to talk about it because I've got this black friend...
