Yes Sir, I Am Still A Black Man

Today I saw that an old friend had called me, I have known him for many years but he is actually old. The guy was probably on the ark with Noah and is probably to blame for not tossing the skunk and the rat over board when Noah was not looking.

This man is a retired black preacher that adopted me as one of his grand kids. The interesting thing to me about our relationship is he believes in the "black gospel", a belief that black people are God's chosen people and whites are the cursed people of the Bible. This has never gotten in the way of our friendship because he thinks even a cursed white man can be saved and be a full brother in Christ.

I then called my dear friend to see what he wanted to talk about. He started off by telling me that he knew I have had a real rough 6 weeks or so but he had noticed that I was back to normal. This of course was a bit offensive because I would hate to be totally normal. He laughed and said no, normal for you.

We chatted about life and the mysteries of the world when he asked me a very strange question. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper and said "Micheal, son, are you still a black man?". Now this might seem like a strange thing to hear but this is the same guy who just a couple of weeks ago went on a long walk with me and after his fifth cigarette told me that walking was much better exercise then jogging because you cannot smoke while jogging.

I really did not know how to respond and my brain was slowly ticking down to exploding when he continued. He told me that I was his favorite grandson even though he only adopted me as his and that people needed to know that I was his kin. I really did not know what to say, I love Dean, Sinatra, my favorite ice cream is vanilla and I have blue eyes and I am of Swedish heritage.

The preacher continued by saying that blacks throughout history have been beaten, sold into slavery, denied jobs, could not even go to some businesses because of the color of their skin but they also created some of the most beautiful music, art and inventions that all people of every color could enjoy. He then explained that while there are people who hate me some for jealousy, some because of boredom that I should continue to be a black man and do what I knew in my heart was true and right.

He then asked me again if I was still a black man and I responded "Yes Sir, I am still a black man". There is much wisdom I have learned from this man and most of the time it takes me a long time to figure out exactly what I was supposed to learn but on this MLK day I can proudly proclaim that I am still a black man.... at least to my dear friend.