HE STRUCK FEAR IN MY HEART!

As my staff and I were about to leave the office today, I had an experience that gave me a pretty clear understanding of why some whites react with fear when they see a young black person coming their way on a dark street, in the elevator or walking down the ally behind them.  This experience reminded me of what Juan Williams said to get himself fired from NPR.  I know that we shouldn't feel this way, but unfortunately I agreed with Juan at the time, and that feeling was under scored earlier today.

Right at closing, a young white guy with a pimply face and a back pack just walked into the office and without saying a word, sat himself down, pulled his legs up into the fetal position and placed his back pack on the floor.  After several uncomfortable moments, one of my staff asked if she could help him, and he said "no, I'm just waiting for someone".  At about 5 minutes after five o'clock, I noticed that the blinds were still open, so I went up front to see what was going on, at which point my staff member got up and motioned to the back of the office.  When we got into my office, she explained that this young man had just stopped in, that he had not said much of anything and that she was afraid to ask him to leave because he was acting so strange.  I then went to the waiting area and asked him who he was waiting for and he said his mom.  I asked him if his mother was supposed to meet him at my office and he said no.  Now given the world that we currently live in where people just walk into places and start shooting, I was nervous enough that I decided to mozy back to my office and call the local police.  While I was on the phone with the police, the young man got up and left just as quickly as he had come in, which left me feeling a huge sense of relief.

I really can't remember the last time someone made me that uncomfortable, and as I drove home this evening, I couldn't help but wonder how many times I had heard one of my white friends relate such stories and walk away thinking how stupid thoughts like that were.  Well for everytime I may have had such a thought, I apologize because I've gotta say that kid really made me nervous.  Perhaps you read my blog post about profiling a couple of days ago in which I kind of joked about people that we need to profile.  Well, I have no doubt that I absolutely profiled this young man, but as my mother would say, "better safe than sorry".

I guess that our outlook on life really is formed by the experiences that we have, and that we all have fears, be they real or simply a part of our imagination. I'll try to stay away from spooky white guy citings for the next couple of days so that I can get back to some fun stuff in my next post.  Until next time, I'm Just Sayin, you can never be too careful!