Posted by:
nomonomo
(
)
Date: April 19, 2017 09:53PM
The other day I was poking through my neighborhood on my bike and came across two mishies, on their bikes but standing and hunched over the handlebars, who were speaking with an African American woman who was probably out for a walk or jog (based on her outfit).
I felt bad for the lady. I rolled up to a stop and in a friendly tone said "hi, elders," and reached out to shake their hands.
I've been waiting for an opportunity like this to appear, but was a bit uncertain. Didn't want to go on the attack, necessarily, and really more wanted to warn the lady and maybe send a message to the elders.
Anyway, after shaking hands with mishies, I didn't skip a beat. Reached over to shake the lady's hand too, and said, "are you a member?" She said that she wasn't, so then I said "did these guys tell you that before 1978 black men couldn't be full fledged members?"
She gave them a quick, sideways glance, and one of them instantly denied it! I looked at the other one and asked if he was going to deny it too. He said "no," but then started to explain that things had changed.
I interrupted him and said "oh yea, that's not true anymore." I'm not sure who was more surprised, the lady or the first mishie. Then I added, "the important thing though is that Black women still can't."
I was sort of having an adrenaline rush by then, so I pushed off to ride away, but called out to the lady, "you'd be crazy to let them talk you into joining their church."
I figured I'd leave it to them to explain that it was not because she was black, but "only" because she's a woman.
In retrospect, I wish I was better prepared to hang in and debate them, but at least I threw them a curve ball, "taught" one a history lesson, and hopefully discouraged the woman and gave her an excuse to blow them off.