Let’s take a moment to reminisce about the good ol’ days when music was simple. Every week I will post a video of a song, 5 years or older, for you listening pleasures!
OMG I youtube one song and find myself watching EVERY JJ music video possible. What an amazing artist she is!
NOW
THAT’S THE JUICE!
Filed under MUSIC, MUSIC VIDEOS, THAT'S THE JUICE, THROWBACK THURSDAY
As usual, I’m sitting at dinner with Pops and Deanna when we fall into a series of random conversations. Somehow we found ourselves on the subject of how racism is REAL down south. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Pops experienced it first-hand. Being that it is black history month, I felt like some of his stories would be appropriate to share.
When Pops was 17, he worked in a restaurant back in the kitchen and bussing tables. The owner was white, but employed African-Americans. According to Pops, he wasn’t racist. His Step-Father would pick him up after work, he was ALWAYS on time, but not that night. As he waited after the restaurant closed, he noticed a group of young white men in a truck. There were about two or three in the front and four in the back. They started driving down the street and turned around. He thought to himself that the guys would be trouble and wondered where his step-father could be? The truck passed him and circled around again. As they approached him, they slowed down and dumped water on him and yelled “Now you’re a clean nigger!” Just as that happened, his step-father pulled up and got out with a bat in hands and the truck pulled off. My pops wasn’t scared, he expected something like that to happen and knew he could not do anything about it. The ride home was quiet, but half way home his step-father said to him “This is why you need to go to college and get up out of this state. The South will never change.” Needless to say, he didn’t work there much longer after, but when the manager found out what happened, he stayed with him until his step-father picked him up.
In the 90’s, my Pops went down to Mississippi to help a friend move. They made a pit stop at the grocery store and found themselves in line a couple of people back from a young white man. An older black man was bagging groceries, about 60 or 70. “Did you hear me boy?” is what caught my Pop’s attention. The young white man was yelling at the older black man to separate his groceries. “I said put the eggs in a different bag, BOY” and all the older black man could do was nod looking down and say “Yes sir.” My pops was furious and moved to say something, but his “Pat’na” (partner) stopped him, “It’s not even worth it bruh, things ain’t changed in the South.”
The last story he told me was of an incident in Washington state! Monroe, I believe. He was dating a girl and took a trip out that way, before they left, her roommate said “You’re going where? Oh, you’re gonna need this,” and handed him a gun. He was worried then, but still went. They stopped at a gas station and he went into the convenient store. An older white man stepped in front of him and asked “Boy, are you lost?” Pops pulled up his shirt, revealing the heat, and said “Nope.” The man caught his drift and said “Oh, okay, y’all have a nice day.” As soon as he got to the car he told the woman that they needed to get up out of there!
Crazy to think that just 17 years ago he encountered racism like we never had a movement. I could not believe what he said or the actions of people living in this very state. I have a friend that I grew up with in Parkland, move to South Carolina. She says that interracial relationships are frowned upon down there. I know there is nothing that can change the way people are, but it is just incredibly hard for me to accept as reality.
Have you seen and/or experienced any acts of racism?
NOW THAT’S THE JUICE!
Filed under Keeping It Real With Pops, THAT'S THE JUICE
THAT'S THE JUICE! 
