Talking While Black

Someone else's perception swayed the choice To book us on the 'color track' So whenever I choose to speak my voice They see me ... as 'talking while black'

"Talking While Black" by Kweku

My name is Earl Martin. Not too many people know me, and I like that just fine. I am married to a wonderful woman named Monica, and we live in a quiet community in Hopewell, New Jersey. Hopewell is approximately 40 miles south of Newark, New Jersey. The development where we live is quiet and most people living there seem to 'mind their own business'. That is not to say that 'neighborhood drama' is non-existent, but with most of our neighbors, there is a laissez faire attitude, and we seem to get along. Although ours is a relatively small township, sociologists probably think of it as an urban area. In numbers, African Americans, and I am one, are amply represented.

Otto Janarian, a neighbor, describes himself as just a man ... a proud black man who never wants to be anyone he is not. When he can, he is happy blending into a crowd. Even these days, which some refer to as the post racial era, Otto responds when he perceives that a racial insult has been hurled or inferred. He feels that it is incumbent upon him to respond ... and respond he will.

On rare occasions, inexplicably, he does not respond, and those non responses weigh heavily on his mind for long periods of time. Otto finds it tough to forgive himself for such non responses. He refers to each such non response as a 'faux pas'.

A bit more than 3 years ago, I met Mr. Janarian. He had moved into a house in the development where we live. While driving by his house, I saw him sitting outside and inexplicably stopped my car. Euphemistically speaking, my stopping to talk to a stranger was inordinately unusual. I introduced myself to him and told him where I lived, and he introduced himself as Otto Janarian.

Since he was/is older than I was/am, I bowed to my home training, shook his hand, and referred to him as Mr. Janarian (as I was taught) ... he insisted on Otto ... I responded Mr. Otto ... he demanded "just Otto". Finally I complied. As we continued to talk, I learned that he was married and had an adult son who had a son. We seemed to develop an immediate mutual respect for each other. From that time on, it was not uncommon to see either of us at the other's home or standing/sitting outside talking.

It has been said that in the early twentieth century, blacks had their own 'brown paper bag test' that coincided with white behavior. Black complexion equal to or lighter than a brown paper bag was deemed 'acceptable' complexion. Blacks with complexions darker than the brown paper bag were thought to be less 'relevant' than blacks with lighter skin hue..

Otto was on the dark side of paper sack brown, thinly built, of average height, with a laid back personality, talkative when motivated, and mum when not. Quite soon, he began to open up in my presence and I in his. He and I learned to share many experiences. He can be very dramatic and often refers to his experiences as his American experience in an American skin

A few days ago, Otto was at my house, and the two of us watched Michelle Obama, on TV, deliver a passionate and poignant speech at the Democratic National Convention. In her speech, she mentioned that she had been waking up every morning in a house ... the white house ... that was built by slaves.

Otto and I were also watching Fox news when Bill O'Reilly, a Fox commentator, made some peculiar comments. As though he were an arbiter, or master teacher, of some sort, O'Reilly conceded that Michelle had been right in her assertion that slaves had worked on the white house, but they were not the only workers ... adding that there had been whites and some free blacks working on the project. The comment that had both of us, Otto and I, shaking our heads ... perhaps Bill's coup de grace ... was when he said the slaves working on the white house were well fed and adequately clothed. Neither of us seemed to grasp the need for O'Reilly's concession or addendum. What point was he attempting to make?

Otto immediately began to respond and likened O'Reilly's comments to many others that he had heard over the years. During Otto's young years, he said it was not uncommon to hear/read about how fortunate America's Negroes (the term used then) were that benevolent whites had taken them away from the dark continent clothing and feeding them when brought to the shores of America. For that humane gesture, there was no mention of the African involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. That 'humanity', those advocates were keeping completely a Caucasian thing.

When a black ... any black ... suggested there was inhumanity in slavery, a response from some whites was often "you know your own people collaborated with whites in the slave trade". Humanity was singular (Caucasian) ... Inhumanity alleged was complicit (Caucasian and African). Otto wondered if that was to excuse or lessen white involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Teachers at Otto's high school 'taught' that the slaves were a happy lot and by and large their masters were kind to them, and they loved their masters ... perhaps that line of thinking was linked to O'Reilly's 'teaching moment'.

In more of his commentary, O'Reilly 'taught' that the white house was still under construction when John and Abigail Adams became the president and first lady respectively. There is alleged to be some notes from Mrs. Adams, among other things, inferring that the slaves she observed working on the white house were half fed and poorly clothed. She is also alleged to have opined that '12' of those slaves did not do as much work as one of their New England white men. Neither Otto nor I has yet to hear about the correctness of that report emanating from Bill O'Reilly.

Odd (perhaps not! Predictable (perhaps)! Bill O'Reilly's failure to arbitrate the veracity of the statement that flourished during Obama's presidential campaigns: "This has been a country built by white folks".

ABO, i.e., 'After Bill O'Reilly', we began to talk about gun violence in black neighborhoods. Included in the discussion was gang warfare and policemen killing young unarmed blacks. Otto mentioned local black criminals from his childhood. His opinion was that most in his neighborhood had no problem with the apprehension of criminals, even if black, and they surely believed in a nation of laws. Deeply tied to that belief was that the laws should be implemented fairly with blacks and whites ... Too often, they believed that was not the case. In no way does Otto accept that blacks are monolithic in thoughts about police. He has seen police (white and black) lauded for the arrest of known black criminals. There are times when blacks fight back after erratic police behavior. Those blacks may be applauded and those...