Like Barack, What You Say Really Matters... Or Does It?
By Kevin Ross,
CEO, 3BAAS Media
So I took a break from blogging and gathered up the family for a 2-day trip to the San Diego Zoo last week.
Like always, the weather down there was perfect. We were having a great time... that is until a old White dude called me a gorilla to my face.
Before I get into what unfolded, let's start with what happened the day prior. As usual, we didn't leave from LA as planned so by the time we arrived, we had to go with Plan B. And that was cool because my wife wanted to visit San Diego State, her old college stomping ground. It was also a chance to take our boys on a college campus.
After an African-American teacher shared with us that whenever she travels she makes it a point to take her kids to the college or university in the area, my better half and I agreed to start doing the same thing. So we walked around, had lunch in Aztec Center, sat in some classrooms, and counted the infinitesimal number of Black students strolling by.Which of course validated why we needed to be there, making sure that unlike their parents, our boys would not be stepping on a college campus for the first time AFTER they were enrolled.
But what does this have to do with the "racist" San Diego "incident" that stayed with me all weekend? Wait, not so fast. What actually happened the following day was I was resting my booted-up, fractured left ankle while my family hung out in the animal petting area for a minute. After walking around the zoo for hours, that bad-boy was throbbing!
So here I am chiling, minding my own business, when an elder White man sees me stretched out on a bench and quips to some school-age children with matching blue and yellow t-shirts, "Kids, don't pet the miniature gorilla over there!"
Now I know he was just being silly. In fact he smiled, waved at me as he passed, and then endearingly referred to the group as his "Little Monkeys" while gathering them together for a group photo.But it made me think about the disturbing, anemic presence of male "gorillas" at San Diego State and college campuses across the country. It made me think about the biracial chimp trying to make history by securing the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. In that one moment, I was somewhere mentally that I wasn't trying to be.
All because of some words. Just words. So maybe there is something to this controversy that Barack finds himself in.
Or maybe everyone, myself included, needs to chill and develop a thicker skin.
Like a you-know-what!