Update: It’s been a while…
I’ve been spending a lot of time at a blog called the Assault on Black Folk’s sanity (AOBFS) at the expense of my primary blog. I was invited to be a contributor, but do to irreconcilable differences, this relationship was terminated. A lot has happened in my absence.
I went to three states in the South to visit relatives. The first place was Houston, TX; the second was a little town down the Bayous of Louisiana, and the third was a city in central Mississippi. Although it is said that Mississippi is one the poorest States in America, poor Black people in many parts of Louisiana and Houston live in deplorable conditions (third world) that I haven’t encountered in Mississippi, or Illinois. I’ve often told friends about Louisiana and told them that they should really consider visiting this place because no matter how bad I tell you it is, things are worst than what you can imagine.
Anyway, while in Louisiana, I asked my cousins how could they vote William Jefferson back into office again after he was caught red handed with cold cash? To my surprised, they told me, he was 1) framed, and 2) I work at a school that also keeps working cash in the freezer in a plastic bag. She said it’s so hot down here that this is the best way to keep cash on hand. After thinking about this for a second, I wondered why the media left this little detail out. No wonder the cops looked in the freezer, they already knew if you have cash on hand in a place as hot as Louisiana, you will store it in the freezer. This just goes to show, you can’t trust everything the media reports because they often omit little details when they want to discredit a Black person.
Next, while visiting my cousins in Mississippi, I asked them, with so many Black people living in the South, how could Mississippi be a Red State? One of them told me that I voted for the Democrats, but my husband voted Republican. Once he came into the polling place his boss followed him in to observe whether he would go to the Democrat or the Republican line. I informed them, you guys do realize this is illegal. Their response was, we are not in Chicago, we are in Mississippi and these people will fire you if you don’t vote the way they want you to. Although we suppose to have the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, which should have given us some rights, in certain places like Jena, LA, and MS, these rights are illusive.
Lastly, since I’ve graduated with my PhD, I was working as a postdoc in the lab where I received my degree until I found more permanent and suitable employment. I’ve finally found a job that I can live with.
