A Little Bit Of Racism

Is racism on the upswing? Having lived in several countries and several states I have had experience with many types of people and have been extremely fortunate to have had very few confrontations based on my race, until last night.

We had some neighbors here in the complex who were evicted for bad behavior. For some reason that I fail to understand, I am being blamed for their eviction and since I have nothing to do with the management of this place and have been pretty much confined to a chair or bed for the last six weeks and haven't spoken with the parties in question, I remain confused. Well, their next door neighbor, who also happens to be mine, has taken up the battle of harassment.

Last night, while mom and I were enjoying the peace and quiet for the first time in months, I noticed that my bathroom was awfully bright. Mom had remarked that one of the reasons she was happy that the neighbors were gone was because we wouldn't have spotlights shining into our yard. Guess why my bathroom was so bright. Yup, the neighbor got one of the spotlights and was shining it directly into my place. He also has a camera and microphone aimed at my property. Twice someone has repeated something that I said in the privacy of my own home. I'm not scared of Big Brother, his little brother lives next door.

One of my neighbors asked him why he was picking on me and the words escalated. I'm still in my backyard, haven't said a word to the neighbor and I hear "who cares what that nigger thinks anyway?" My friend (6'3) went off on the neighbor (5'5) and threats started flying between the two. I ended the discussion quickly after I piped up with "don't pay any attention to him, he has little man's disease. Little body, little dick, little brain."

Little does this man realize how much I don't care about his opinion of me. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and I can see right through his. I have been called worse by littler people than him. I was trained to ignore epithets by my brothers and the cruel kids of the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. He has a long way to go, generic labels very rarely apply to me, half-breed that I am.

Meanwhile, he owes my mother an apology. She thought he was a friend of hers and was devastated to hear him call me a name out of thin air. I feel sorry for her, she thought those times had passed long ago and to find it in her own back yard was not pleasant.

Yes, I think a big apology from the little man would be appropriate, don't you?