All vaxxed with a side of fries

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior, is finally, and permanently, discredited and abandoned, then everywhere is war- Robert Nestor Marley

With vaccination comes the customers we didn't really miss!

As I was serving/waiting on a four-top a few nights ago, I couldn't help but overhear a little bit of the conversation at hand. This was a table with three Caucasians(YT) and an Asian woman. The two elder YTs, who appeared to be visiting Brooklyn, were in one of those gosh darn it, jolly old moods. I know they were visiting, because the older gentleman made a 'dad/bad joke' as I was taking away his empty plate, saying that he hated everything. Queue the rolled eyes please, (This is something only YT parents would say, so dare I stereotype). They seemed to be the parents of the YT male who looks to be in his early 30's. Then, there was the Asian female who maybe was in her late 20's to early 30's. I wasn't sure about the dynamics of the group and to be VERY clear, I didn't care. For me, they were just HUMANS To Insure Proper Service for, well you get it T.I.P.S, and to get them on their way in about an hour and a half, so I can put another four top there. As I was clearing their plates and as they awaited the main course, I could hear the young YT saying to the Asian woman as in the form of a question, "Teriyaki is just water with soy sauce and sugar, right?",  to which she responded, "Why are you asking me? I'm not Japanese." I laughed and looked over at the young YT who was not in the least bit phased as he continued to 'impress' his parents with the ignorance of knowledge that he knew.

I walked away feeling pleased with her answer, even if HE didn't understood the assignment.

Unfortunately, I hear these conversations everyday. Hell, I get asked by older YT  gentlemen almost every table "where are you from, I detect an accent?" meanwhile,   the whole world has an accent. Also I just here to see if you wanted fries or salad with your order. Yea silly questions like these in 2021. I live in Brooklyn NYC, Williamsburg, to be exact.This is an area that has transformed over the last 10 years into a Monet. From a bird's eye view it seems diverse but as you get closer completely segregated. I will leave that there. Gone are the days where artists of like mindedness come together to form a little community of tolerance around an Art University, Pratt. You would think that if there was ever a place that racism would cease to exist, then Brooklyn should be the place, right?  This I dare to stereotype.  This should be a place, where no matter where you were from, if you live here, you can't help but to congregate in the same restaurants, apartment buildings, apartments for that matter (the NYC roommate system), bars, churches, schools, subways, sharing the same utensils and the same lives. A place where any given day you will see couples of different racial backgrounds, hanging out with friends of different cultural backgrounds. A place where people don't refer to you by the 'color of your skin', but by the 'content of your character' Dr. King would be proud?. A place where you will see the absolute African sista' with a nerdy Asian brother. A community where a white boy from the middle of France will proclaim his love for the black man and him only. A place where your roommate comes into 'their' own and literally transform into the person 'they' were always meant to be and your homies for life. A place where fluidity is a damn fly thang and fashions are push to the limit. A reality show's dream. Somewhere that you can honestly say you feel safe to be, and live, and give, and jog, run and stroll your babies and dogs around. Yes! This Place! Brooklyn, close to the waters, the damn dog poop parks and the Bridges, where you can be as close to or isolated from the city. It is a haven of individuality, funky cafes, thrift shops, baby strollers, brunch menus in the middle of the week, Say Whaaaat, restaurants with small portions and dirty dive bars, upscale bars, Mixologists, foragers, BLM protesters and the Barclay center. A place where cash only is most definitely a thing, with ATMs illuminated from every window, with the biggest rats you will ever see on the streets in Bushwick.

                                        SO WHY ARE WE STILL SO RACIST?

This will seem like a bold ass question, but it is true and very real on every level. The notions of children 'living what they learn' is in full form and it is the problem that we can not seem to shake, even in 2021.

Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes....-Robert Nestor Marley.

There has been a lot of racial uprising, and with the pandemic keeping us in one place, a lot of us have no choice but to look to the Man, Woman or Them in the mirror and try to figure out what side of racial injustice or justice will win, and it had me thinking:

How tolerant are we?
What is our 'fuck you' moment if push should come to shove?
What is it that we will stand for?
How many relationships will cease to exist?
WILL THE REVOLUTION BE TELEVISED AND WHO WILL BE AROUND TO SEE IT?
I get it. There are literally some tv shows and movies I refused to watch because I see no black people in them. I earned those rights! There are ties I have severed because a spouse or a girlfriend of someone is always too judgment about this fly black women's hair and appearance, or with people (but mostly YT people though) who decide they HAVE the right to tell me how I should feel about my emotions when it pertains to racism against me and my people. I wanna say I am just as biased as the person standing next to me, the person sitting beside me in the restaurants (don't talk to me without your mask on, please), hell, a lot of the people I work with, AND a whole bunch of the folks I work for. 
A conversation comes to mind, from a few years ago, from a boss I once knew, who has interracial girls with a literal quarter of their existence coinciding with my existence (Jamaican), but, will be the first one to tell me one night after we are closing up and everyone being concerned about the up coming Christmas season, where crime rates seem to go up, and me being concerned with the fact that if I, a female, should brave the fifteen minutes walk to my house at midnight, or fuck it and take a 3 min cab ride ($8) to my house, would loudly say to me "What are you afraid of? You are Black and they (meaning only black people rob people) will not bother you". I was indeed pressured into walking home, because it was cold out and the time I would have to wait for a cab to 'pick ME up,' I could be home and snuggled in the comfort of my warm abode.  Sadly this is also another thing I have grown accustomed to, living in the BIG CITY, THE CAPITAL OF THE WOLRD! This was before ride shares I should add. Back then, as a black woman, I occasionally get that little fear in my belly when I see a yellow cab approaching. The fear of 'if he is about to pull some bulshit and not pick me up' or worst, if I get in the cab after a long day, on a cold night, is he going to ask me,"You pay cash or credit?", (But here I dare to stereotype), before he drives off in the direction of my house. And he will find himself relaxing after he realized I live in Clinton Hill, because that 'neighborhood' is considered 'Safe' and 'White'. And I am not making myself out to be a victim of racial profiling, although I should, because what good would come of that? I am just stating the fact that a 'Brown cab driver on any given night would rather pass me by, a 'sober female sista ',  in a rain storm or the iciest of snow, and race to pick up a drunken YT male, who I know for a fact will somehow throw up in the cab, or better yet my personal favorite, would be so drunk that he will pass out immediately as he gets in the cab, allowing the driver to drive aimlessly around in 'White Neighborhoods' looking for an apartment that he knows nothing about, only to end up having to call the cops, where in cases like these, the said drunk guy has no money because he gave it all to the bartenders at the many bar he's been to all fucking night.
But hey, THIS I dare to stereotype!
'Stories like this gives me a whole heap of satisfaction in and of my racism!'

                                                        WHY ARE WE STILL  SO RACIST?

I believe a BIG part of this stems from the lack of acknowledgement when it comes to COLOR, YES THIS BLACK GIRL MAGIC SKIN CHILE'. It IS ok for you to see my color, actually that is exactly what I want you to acknowledge that you see when you look at me. My color is beautiful AND my hair is my crown, my eliteness, my jam. If you are agreeing to seeing that, then you will move pass it and get to know me, my culture, my creation and the things that makes me cry and laugh, and fail, and succeed. It will expose you to the amazing foods I eat and can cook, LAWD. It will let me open up to you in a way where I WONT FEEL LIKE YOU WILL USE IT AGAINST ME and I will be a friend and ally, OR, you will find we have nothing in common and that's okay too. Atleast you won't just be seeing the color but the content as well.

                                                                    But, 

Even though we all move to the big city to live amongst the colorful, we maintain our little cliques and 'stick to our own' in little groups, while we learn nothing of the little differences that really should unite us. We would learn that the only race we have anything fully in common with is The Human Race!

Why are we so racist?

We tend to speak in terms of 'them' and 'they' only to stop ourselves when 'them' or 'they' are apart of the conversation. Giving these foolish words bigger meanings. We tend to get so caught up in the little petty matters of 'Why we are still single? or which dating site is the newest format of getting laid?', that we don't make use of the freest of them all, COEXISTING WITH OUR NEIGHBORS. Saying "Hi!" as we walk down the street and giving a smile to the person next to you on the subway. Instead out of fear, or maybe a form of entitlement, we carry on about our business with our headphones, and our phone mails, and our social media apps, too busy engulfed in that form of society to see the bigger picture and the world around. Always getting mad at the humans who are simple asking for help (big shout out to Steve who we all may know from begging money on the subway), because they are really just in need of human interaction and maybe a little bit of alcohol that day. Homeboy it's cold out here in the winter time! Blindly watching while the  pervert grinds up against the young miss on her way to work, and the not so fortunate helping themself to the commuters money, who fell asleep after a hard day's work.

These are the makings of a racist be! 

You tend to overlook these small casualties of everyday life, but you won't second a thought to post something on social media that is happening around the world, *BLACK LIVES MATTER*, a different state, *BLACK WOMEN LIVES MATTER*, or a different block, *BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER* to garner a few likes or to make it seem like you really care, when in the end the means are not being justified. I am sick of all of it and I would love it if just for a week the internet would cease to exist and you would have no choice but to love your neighbors as you would yourselves and to do unto others as them to you! Hell I would take a month and another round of unemployment(HA!) if it means that you would all just look at people as humans in their rare forms and not just as a color, religion, immigrant or a group.
If love is the basis of it all, and  love is in all of us, then why is it so hard to pay forward?
Why do you do racist bulshit to people who shit, breathe, eat, pee, bleed, love, laugh, live, die and exist as you do? 
Why are you so stupid to feel like you are the only people doing these things while 'THEY' and 'THEM' miraculously survive by divine intervention?

WHY ARE YOU STILL SO RACIST?

And while I am on this topic, Old ASS  white people PLEASE stop asking me where I'm from. I get it I'm Black and Bootylicious!

And as I am back in the New York groove,
Sleepless!