negrophobia, hope and gasoline

Interesting day:
Today I went to perform poetry with a buddy of mine at an event for Black incoming students at a nearby University. The performance itself went ok, we were well received. Afterwards a professor approached us for possibly coming to a class of his to talk about hip-hop. (He mentioned the possibility of $$$ compensation which was kinda nice)

Unfortunately on my way there I ran out of gas. (Alhamdulillah it happened close to a rest stop) But this white guy who I never met before saw me having car trouble and actually drove me the rest of the way to my friend's house so I could make it to the performance. Wow, my sense of hope and trust in my fellow man gets a great big boost.

After the performance, and some pizza, my friend and I get a little gallon container of gasoline so I could drive my car to the next gas station. My friend and I go back to that wonderful rest stop which increased my faith in humanity. But after putting the gas in my car and making sure that it would start, an older women with a major case of negrophobia pulls out of the spot next to mine and ends up bumping into my buddy's car while it was standing in the middle of the parking lot. I say she had negrophobia because when my man approached her car to exchange information she absolutely refused to roll down the window or get out of the car until the police came. Apparently based on what she told the police, she must have thought that me and my buddy were going to carjack her or something. She even told the police that my car had "appeared out of nowhere" (even though it had been unmoved and gasless for nearly four hours). Fortunately we had enough evidence to back up our story (my car engine wasn't hot under the hood, we had the receipt for the gas container, the positioning of the cars, etc.). The cop concluded that the incident was the woman's fault but didn't give her a ticket. I think he basically realized she was being paranoid and told us as much after she left.


Negrophobia is something which I think I understand but it is not a condition for which I have a great deal of sympathy. I figure I'm doing my part against negrophobia by going around and NOT mugging and raping folks. But maybe I should do more? Maybe negrophobes need their own telethon? I can just picture it now. Martha Stewart and Wayne Brady could co-host: With performances by Cuba Gooding Jr., Bill Cosby, Levar Burton (He hasn't been Kunta-Kente in a long time), Gary Coleman, Emmanuel Lewis, and Hootie (yeah, I know its not really his name but it is fun to say "Hootie")

But seriously, what is the cure to negrophobia?