Oakland’s New Racism Must Be Stopped. Oakland is being victimized by a new racist element that thinks it’s OK to yell out at and taunt people because they’re black.
The last straw for me was at The Alley, which wasn’t the bar’s fault, but it happened there. A guy named Colin was with his wife Leila, and it was obvious he was drunk. But he used his condition as a mask for saying “You’re black. I have seen a black person in a long time.” And he was trying to talk to me about my being black, and saying that it’s cool, and saying I’m a shithead, and I was having none of it.
He was being racist, but avoiding the use of obviously racist terms. Again, Colin came up with this stuff out of the blue.
I told Leila, his wife, who was talking to my long time friends Monica and Daniel, to “get your husband under control,” as she was standing next to the guy, but pretending to not hear him, when others did.
And prior to that, his wife was standing next to us, and then tried to enter our conversation about a friend of mine and his playful tiff with Monica, by saying “Well it was interracial.” And even though Monica is Latino and my friend Johh, who was not there, is black, race wasn’t even part of the issue we were talking about.
It was in Leila’s head because I’m black and Monica and Daniel aren’t, and Leila has a problem with it that she will not admit to.
And then there were the white guys who were yelling at me as I got into a cab on the night of the murder of Kiante Campbell “Oh, black guy going to Uptown,” because they heard me say that’s where he could take me.
Then there’s Oakland City Auditor Courtney Ruby’s report that singles out two black Oakland Councilmembers for an alleged City Charter violation that applies to all Oakland Councilmembers, and has during the reporting period, which goes back to 2010. That report news was picked up by a racist website. It has offensive race-based messages that should not be associated with Oakland. Oakland’s not for burning.
In all, this must stop.