Today I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Gardner, author of the book, "The Pursuit Of Happiness". Mr. Gardner was standing in the hotel lobby shooting the breeze with a couple of older white men, one white woman, a younger black man and yours truly. We all were mesmorized by this man who repeated the story of how he was totally dedicated to providing a better life for himself and his son.
While we were standing there talking, two black women came over and introduced themselves to Mr. Gardner. They thanked him for sharing his story and told him how much of an inspiration he was-to single mothers as well as single dads. They too were laughing as the charming, polite and extremely humble Mr. Gardner cracked jokes about the failures he had before all the success came.
But their laughter stopped when Mr. Gardner stopped holding court and said, "Baby, is everything ok?" Mr. Gardner was speaking to a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes who stood about 5'10 (in heels).
They were EXTREMELY bothered by her presence and didn't try to hide it either. The two women walked off as if he had called them out of their names or something. Mr. Gardner didn't seemed bothered by it one bit. He told me and the other black guy, I get more attitudes and strange looks from black women than I do white people.
Unfortunately, I got a glimpse into what he has to deal with a few weeks ago.
As many of you know, I recently went on vacation to Hollywood, Florida. While there, I befriended a beautiful woman, who also was tall with blonde hair. To the naked eye, she looked white but she was of Cuban decent. Regardless of her nationality, we became friends and hung out by the pool during the day and danced to old school hip hop and 80s music at the spot across the street at night.
During the entire time we were hanging out, nobody-not one person gave us any funny looks or said anything out of the ordinary.
But the following morning, we noticed that our waitress (a black woman) had a slight attitude. My friend couldn't understand what the problem was, but I could.
The waitress had a problem with me having brunch with a woman who didn't look like her.
Did she tell me that? No!
But it was obvious by the disdained look on her face, that a black man sitting with what she thought was a white woman made her very uncomfortable if not angry.
My question is: WHY!!!???
Why are so many black women STILL uncomfortable with the sight of a black man with a white woman?
Also: Why is it when a black man dates a white woman, he's betraying black women.
But when it's the other way around, the woman is upgrading?
Help a brotha out!!!
*FOR THE RECORD*
I am NOT dating nor have I ever dated anyone outside of my race. However, if I lived in South Florida, I would definitely consider it.
The only problem I have is when men put women of another race up on a pedatal as superior. Aside from that, it doesn't bother me at all when I see men with white women or any other race. I myself am open to dating men of all races, and feel everyone should expand their options this way.
ReplyDelete