[redwitch]

I still vividly remember driving with a friend in Orinda, California. Orinda is a small very monied town in the East Bay. Scotty had recently purchased a home there. Scotty was very dark skinned. He was driving his Porsche. He was not speeding, had not run a red light, was doing nothing illegal. Regardless, he was pulled over, called "boy". Throughout the entire experience, he was polite and extremely civil. The same could not be said for me. I was angry, yelled at the officers, demanded an apology as Scotty tried to calm and quiet me down. That incident stuck with me even though it occurred forty years ago. That a black man could be stopped for no reason other than being black was and is so wrong to me. That someone would automatically assume that someone of color is in a subservient position today is just as wrong to me. Until we can judge people by their behavior and not by their color, we need these type of discussions. If you can't see the difference between someone thinking you worked for AA while wearing a red blazer and someone thinking you are a valet because your skin happens to be darker, then maybe you need to try to be a little more understanding of others' humiliations.