Mr Obama, I've been followed in stores too...

[RevStPatrick]

39. Yeah, you know what? Me too.

And I'm also a white guy.
Actually, with me, since I live in the city and don't drive and there are lots of young women in my neighborhood, it's more like if I'm walking behind a young woman, particularly at night (and I tend to walk really fast), they get nervous as I come up behind them. I've learned over the years to shuffle my feet noisily, or cough and give them plenty of room. It doesn't take much out of my day to do that.

And you know what?
It ain't shit compared to, oh let's say my neighbor who gets stopped and frisked once a month or so.
Simply because he's black and is a musician, so he tends to come home late at night a lot.
Stopped and frisked once a month or so.
For his entire life.
He's about 40, and a graduate from Juilliard.
Once a month for 25 years.
He's been stop and frisked about 300 times.
I've been stop and frisked zero times.

Here's another one - a few weeks ago, another black dude came to my house one afternoon to hang out and I wasn't home yet. He's a middle aged guy, actually, he looks a lot like our Mr. Scorpio. He was in the military, is highly educated and articulate and has never hurt a fly. While he was waiting for me, he decided to hang out in the shade across the street from my house and have a smoke.

When I got there, he was chatting with 3 guys who I didn't know, who I think worked in the building across the street. My friend said "There's RevStPatrick!" (and he used my last name) He's the guy with all the great musical instruments, yadda yadda yadda..." I was a little annoyed with my friend, because I don't really want strangers to know my name and what I've got in my house. But they were 3 pasty white nerdy-looking guys, so I figured I had nothing to worry about. We went inside and hung out and I got over it real fast.

Then the other day, I read this piece, by Questlove:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/questlove-trayvon-martin-and-i-aint-shit.html

I almost started crying, because it gave me a little insight into why my friend said what he said to those strangers, and my reaction to it.

Middle-aged black guy is standing in an unusual spot having a cigarette.
Strangers come outside and wonder what he's doing there.
I think he felt he had to come clean, make it seem like he belonged there, had to have someone "vouch" for him, even if it was pre-emptive.

It didn't really occur to me until I read the Questlove piece. BECAUSE I'VE NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH THAT!

And I wondered - it was 3 pasty-white nerdy dudes that he was talking to, and I was a little annoyed but as I said above "I figured I had nothing to worry about." What if he had been talking to 3 Trayvon-looking kids? Would I have reacted the same way? Would I have been more than "a little annoyed"?

I don't know, and that bothers the fuck out of me. I don't know what kind of societal-conditioning would have kicked in. I know myself pretty well, but I'm not willing to make a blanket statement that my reaction would not have been different. Again, that bothers me. Badly.

That's my two cents, and it's not even worth that much...