Yesterday, after we went to church, Central High School, the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center, and finally Memphis, we all went to Beale Street. I was terrified. The trip there was prefaced with a talk about safety: T.J. said that their were professional pickpockets and other shady people on Beale Street and that we should never be alone without a partner. Again, I was terrified. I tagged along with Sabrina, Alyce and Emmanuel and we headed down into the Black Forest. There were so many people and so many smells mixed into one, it was insane, but no smells were more prominent than the stenches of horse and pee. I walked with the group asking to hold hands and stay really close together; everyone was saying, "calm down" and "Antonio, it's going to be OK." I responded with "No guys, I'm seriously scared!" or something of the like. We all went down the street into this little jewelry section were everyone seemed to speak broken English, save for the few White people who we met back there. Alyce purchased some rings, Emmanuel bought a necklace, and so did I, but Sabrina bought nothing. We left there and made our way back up to find some food and on the way we fund Lucy and Kyla who then joined our group. We found the Blues City Cafe to eat at and were seated immediately. When we sat down I noticed that there was not a single non-white person in the place except for the workers and I was wary of that, my stomach even began to hurt a little. I ordered ribs, a half rack; Alyce ordered delicious cheese fries topped with green peppers, she didn't like that; Emmanuel ordered golden fried shrimp and cheese fries, Kyla ordered the same thing; Lucy ordered catfish; and Sabrina ordered chicken tenders. While we were eating I saw an older white couple across from us, and the male in the couple was giving us a look like "Are the coloreds and our good white girls sitting together?!" I was pretty sure he was a racist of some sort: earlier I'd seen a sign that said "no discrimination" and if that needed to be said then I figured that there must be some problem with it, I guess he was our problem. I was disgusted and even more terrified. So when we were all done eating and conversing, we left. As we walked down the stree,t we saw Akiliah getting a pastel drawing of her face. We all watched her and listened and danced to the karaoke music that could be heard near by; there was a lot of music that could be heard on Beale Street, from karaoke to Beyoncé to Rihanna to the Cupid Shuffle.
We went to a few more places and did a few more things, but, being that I was on edge already, nothing was more unnerving than the multiple discriminatory looks from different White people. I don't know if it is a bias within me, but as far as I could see there were no racist Black people. Yes, there were a few black people who were drunk and maybe suspicious, but not blatantly racist.
All in all, I guess Beale Street was a good adventure for me: it took me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to the many problems still present in the South.
-Antonio Lunn
No comments:
Post a Comment