Hello to all. I would like to say that as a person of color I don't understand when I hear people try to enlist a code of color. I was offended by the term I heard the other day - black on brown crime. Now the last time I looked in the mirror my skin tone is somewhere around copper, so I picked up a pair of my shoes and placed them next to my arm and guess what? Nah! I look at these terms as a way to try to classify people as well as to have them classify themselves. As for myself, my ancestry ranges between Native American and African descent. But if you pass me on the street, is this what you see? Do you see just another man? Or do you see just another one of "those" people? I work hard for the little sliver of the American pie that I have. I am a veteran (disabled, at that); and what bothers me most, at times, is the fact that I had no problem putting my ass on the line for this country and this flag. I would defend them with my last breath. However, when all is said and done, I am treated as a second class citizen. No... let me restate that. I feel as that I am treated as though I have no right to be here at all.
One hot day I went in to a 7-11 convenience store for something to drink. I entered the store and noticed that all eyes were on me as if I where about to steal something. I smiled to myself as they watched me because I noticed several young Caucasians from the local military academy were robbing them blind. The young men knew the people who worked there were watching me and that they weren't being observed in the same manner. Normally I would have called attention to the young men and their misdeeds, but that day I turned my head and said nothing. I just let it go. Today is my baby girl's birthday and she just turned 16; in our home on your birthday you get your dinner of choice. So, my baby girl and I are leaving the butcher shop heading to the car when we pass a lady in the parking lot. As we walk past she looks at us as if we were in the wrong part of town, and the irony is that we have lived here for fifteen years and a lot of these folks weren't even in the area when we moved here. I look at how someone can come from anywhere in the world for the most part and have more opportunities than someone who was born here, who served this country without question and has done it all playing by the rules, after working my way into a position where I could help others, regardless of skin color-I looked only at what they needed. I not only hired my crew, but trained and mentored; but as soon as they had become proficient I became a bigot. I catered to the ( blacks ) on the crews-now the sad part is the only ( black ) was me and the other persons of color were Hispanic and although I see them as persons of color some do not see themselves in that way. The worst part about this is there were two ( black ) guys on the crew and I fired one, and of all of these find young men and women only two were a vet, all but two had never served this country but yet I am a lesser person; only in America can someone be born here fight and die for this place but still not be of this place. I say to all of that, if we (people of color), whether you are from here (America) or any place else, allow ourselves to cast out our own people, the ones we will truly hurt are ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Hate for the sake of others.