Dissed At The "Fried Rice King"

After a 3 hour fight delay coming off of a family vacation I was about to pass out from hunger. The only thing I had not eaten since lunch time was a small bag of pretzels.

Sunday night - all of my normal Chinese food joints near my house had closed as I called ahead to see if they were open. I was not going to eat any fast food.

The only late night Chinese food place on my way home from the airport that I could think of is "The Fried Rice King" on Old National Highway. I had never eaten there before and I had doubts about the food. I decided to risk it.

I walk in and place my order and then sit down. "No Public Bathrooms" signs are posted all over the place. I notice that they have a stack containing one local news paper. "The Conductor - The Official Newspaper Of The Overground Rail Road". It is a paper focusing upon "Black economic empowerment". The irony of me obtaining the paper from a Chinese greasy spoon restaurant in a Black community landed upon me. Also next door - a recently closed grocery store was turned into a dance club. Now that's progress!!!

As I was reading the paper a young guy walked in. He asked the Chinese guy behind the counter "Do you mind if I sit down for a minute and write some of my thoughts down?". The guy agreed. He laid out a spiral notebook on the table and began to write with an awkward left handed style.

I decided to find out more about what he was writing. So I flipped through the paper, thinking about the angle that I was going to take in talking to him. Then I noticed that the "Concerned Black Clergy" has their weekly meeting at 9:30am. I decided to enter this into my calendar so I can drop past and listen to determine if they are seeing the problems with Piracy in Atlanta as I am seeing it. This would be a good time to confront my ideological adversaries or just listen to their perspective.

My initial assumption was that the guy was recording "hip hop lyrics" but I did not want to jump off with that as my question.

I asked the guy "My man, what are you writing a novel or something?"

He looked up at me, all gold fronts on the top and said to me "Nah I'm trying to record my life on paper so I can figure some things out. This is my journal."

I asked - "Are you looking to publish this or is this for your own records?"

He said "Its just for me. I been through a rough period and I am just trying to get some things together in my life. I have so many things flying around in my head and I need to get them straight".

I asked "Do you have access to a computer? I get the same thoughts and I have a blog where I can put my thoughts down. Then other people see what I write and they make comments about what I said. Some agree some disagree. We just go back and forth".

"No I don't have access to a computer." he said.

"How old are you?"

"I am ONE" he said. (I estimate he was about 21 years old)

"What is this? Are you reborn in your spirit or something?"

"No I just one. I am starting over and I am planning on going in a different direction" he said.

"Let me ask you a question. Where do you want to go? Have you ever heard of Bre'r Rabbit?", I asked. "He said: If you don't know where you are going you will always get there.

(Note: Upon checking the spelling of Bre'r Rabbit I now see that I was wrong. It was the "Cheshire Cat" from "Alice In Wonderland" that made that statement)

After asking that question he shutdown the conversation.
He said "Well I was trying to figure out where I am going until you started to interrupt me."

Damn. I didn't expect that one.

I said to him "I'm sorry my young brother. I didn't mean to interrupt what you were doing. I apologize. No offense taken from your words. I know how it is to be bothered by other people. I'll leave you alone".

I waited for about 3 more minutes. My food was ready and I took off.
I took the picture above before I talked to the guy.


ANALYSIS

I noticed that he didn't close up until I asked him for more specificity about his goals and direction. He didn't seem stand-offish when he said he was "One years old" and when he spoke in generalities. When I tried to get him to be clear - NOT FOR ME BUT FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT - he cut things off.

Hey - I am in sales. My feelings don't get hurt easily. I have been personally attacked, my companies products called junk and I still keep my composure. This was not about ME.

I guestimate that this guy either dropped out of high school or barely made it out. He might have had a few minor run-ins with the law. Some beef with his family likely drove him to come around the corner to the "Ghetto Starbucks" to get his thoughts together.

He probably comes from an environment where trusting strangers can make you vulnerable. At the end of the day he did not come into the place to talk to me. He came in to try to organize his thoughts. I can live with this. This wasn't about me.

At the same time he does not realize how he had cut off a potential resource to him.

I said before that I don't believe that an essential part of me proving my "Blackness" is that I have to be a "superior being" to another Black man who is, in fact MY EQUAL. They are obliged to show some portion of interest in upholding the line as well.

Had he been interested I could have introduced him to the world of on-line publishing and blogging. After establishing a bit of trust I could have given him a "netbook" that I haven't been using so that he could publish.

I tried as hard as possible to not proselytize with him. There was no mention of "Jesus" or "You should be doing this rather than that" that came out of my mouth.

The only thing that I did was to attempt to get him thinking in accordance with a certain methodology. He was more comfortable with "freestyling".

He may indeed get some thoughts down on paper. In as much as these thoughts come from his own perspective and are not constructed with references to a framework that is extraneous to the line of thinking that has lead him to where he stands right now - I am not so sure that this exercise in and of itself is going to mean an enduring change for him.

In any event - I would have been better off not ordering this food in the first place. The place is a greasy spoon. I appreciate my buddy's at the Chinese restaurant closer to my house. He calls me by my name and gives me a free spring roll each time. Their food is so much better.

The challenge for reforming the outcomes associated with the Black male in this society is for our community to develop a more effective framework by which to guide them along. This is necessary to rid them of "childish ways" and have them more focused on actually obtaining these more favorable "directed outcomes". Too many of them are making decisions during their time from the teen on the verge of exiting the nest through to time when they are in their early 30 years, with a far more reflective disposition of the choices that they have made in life. This period of their life will likely set the course of the rest of their natural life. This is where so much potenial is squandered.

I can only pray that the young man that I talked to briefly tonight gets himself together and moves forward productively.

It is a certainty that he has little organized educational skills working in his favor. He appeared to be a good kid though.