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Published: January 22nd 2006
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No Love
I see brothers, they just don't see me. Whats da deal y’all? I took a little break from the blog, but now I’m back with another insightful tale. In my time here in Guanajuanto I have seen a number of wonderful, interesting, funny and down right unexplainable things. The folks here are for the most part extremely nice and just a pleasure to be around, but it is the few that I have met or seen that are the inspiration behind this entry. To set the tone I’ll talk about my interaction with other Americans.
Everyday it seems I see some guy or girl that just oozes “I’m from the U.S.A.”. The usual tell-tell signs are a big ass camera, very bad Spanish, their clothes and the fact they don’t speak when spoken to. I also came to the realization that a large majority of Americans are jerks when it comes to cultural experiences, with the exception of the folks I have had classes with and a few other folks that have moved here permanently, the folks I have seen and met from the US were assholes, straight up! All that aside, what has been most upsetting are the black folks I’ve seen and met here.
A few weeks ago I ran into this cat that looked like a cross between Arthur Ashe and Bill Cosby. Now this brother was like 50, so I figured he’d be like most brothers from the 60’s and be very cool. Man I could not have been more wrong. This nigga gave me the dead fish handshake for starters and then gave off this attitude like “damn here we go.” So I rap to the cat for like 40 seconds to find out that he has lived here for 25 years, was from Detroit and was part of the local orchestra. Now me being the brother I am if I were in his shoes I would have made some type of attempt to offer some advice or show some kind of love. SILENCE. And since I have been here I have seen/met 4 other brothers and one sista, all of which gave me this look like “this town is only big enough for one of us”. Suckas! The Sista was handing out flyers for a local bar and gave one to our housemate, spoke to her the whole nine and didn’t even bat an eye at Suzanne or I and we were two feet from her. Another cat, who I swore was Orlando Jones, made a complete and total attempt to try to give me the glass eye, then to add insult to injury didn’t even speak or try to acknowledge me when I walked past. The final straw was when this young couple about my age saw me, made eye contact, then walked across the street and proceed down the other sidewalk as to totally avoid any chance of conversation or interaction of any kind. So at this point I don’t even make attempts to say anything. I would sooner smack the shit out of the next wack brother/sista just so they can go back to there respective homes and tell there friends and family that there was some crazy ass nigga in Mexico rather than give them the free passage and the peace of mind be free to not speak to one of there own.
I guess to me respect is big and very important. Here in GTO I have made acquaintances with a number of folks and it has been a beautiful thing. It is funny to meet a person at the store or have them as your museum guide and they treat you like you are family every time you cross paths. I have had people come up to me and speak and shake hands and I quite honestly couldn’t remember their names, but they knew mine. I have been invited to events for free, family functions, and just been asked to come kick with folks. I think the main reason is that I keep it real with folks and show respect to every man and woman I come across. I find that people here are cool just like anywhere else. I get in where I fit in and don’t try to be anything different than who I am. Being one of a handful of African Americans here I feel that I must represent. Now I know that one person could never be the voices or face of a whole race, but when it comes to people and feelings that shit is out the window, people remember that a person was so and so and more importantly that person was a black/white/Mexican/Asian/etc. so and so. I can say that I have held it down for every spectrum of who I am > from being a Christian to being a Kappa. At then end of the day the name Greg Jones is all-good here in GTO and I have laid a respectable foundation, so come on in y’all the burritos taste fine.
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Nathan Owens III
non-member comment
All for one and one for all...maybe not, huh?
Here...here...my brotha. Never stop representing!