Old White Guy and Young Black Man: A Tale of Two Meetings

[Pkruse]

I'm an old white guy who lives in a gated community in Florida. I couldn't sleep the other night, so I went out for a walk. I'm always armed, but rarely with a gun because I'm well trained on how to do great harm with what I have.

I saw a young black man of about 20. So I went up to talk with him. We spent several hours talking about lots of stuff, some of it very serious. He introduced me to rap music, which I have never thought about listening to before. I rather like it, and we talked at length about the deeper meanings behind the lyrics.

I learned that he grew up in a family of drug dealers. He dealt for a while and made a lot of money at it. But it bothered him that it was ruining the lives of his customers, so he quit and went back to school. He is now a medical student.

We taked about Trayvon Martin. We agreed that we have no idea what happened. He volunteered that Trayvon may very well have attacked Zimmerman, but that the opposite might also be true.

I marvelled that my meeting of this fine young man was so similar to that meeting, but the outcome was so different. I will talk to anyone anywhere if they will talk to me. That habit has resulted in many new and interesting friends.

Too bad it did not work out that way that night in Sanford. The difference was that neither of us was afraid of the other, yet we both assumed the other to be armed.

 

[lisab]

Nice story, Pkruse. People like you and that young man are the vanguard of social change - willing to challenge their own preconceptions and stereotypes.

 

[Evo]

Very nice, however, we just closed a couple of threads on this case and don't want to restart the argument.