Was Last Night "Black. White." or "Death Wish?"

As a black man, there are places I won't go.  While country western dance halls are generally a bad idea for me, I definitely stay away from places that display multiple Confederate flags in areas north of the Mason-Dixon line.  Here in the Deep South, a lot of nice people are related to Confederate soldiers - so the heritage claim for the flag is actually legitimate.  Anywhere else, typically the people that hang that flag are people that I pretty much want to avoid.

 

Also, as a black man, if I am with a white girl - there are places I won't go.  Country western halls bedecked with Confederate flags are one place, and another place is an area where black revolutionaries and gang members tend to gather.  Just not a good idea.

 

Watching Bruno and Carmen (the white parents) do just what I described was hair-raising.  Especially when Bruno (in black makeup) didn't notice the stares and the murmuring among the white folks in the bar while he was there.  Carmen (also in black makeup) was in tears, and she really started to actually get it - that there are people who make snap judgments about you based on your skin, and there is really little you can do about it.  Racism got Bruno's attention when he brought Carmen (without makeup) to a black gathering on Crenshaw in South Central. Every person there seemed to mentally revoke Bruno's ghetto pass as he hung close to his white woman.  Even through the TV screen you could feel the resentment and anger towards both of them, while the black woman who accompanied them advised that maybe it was time to go.

 

Now three episodes in, I think people are really gaining an understanding on how race affects us.  Race shouldn't matter, but it has had an impact for so long - it is impossible to disregard until we understand its roots and how to root it out.