'I don’t remember what I said because I was too shocked to respond,' writes John Blake | Essay
I don’t remember what I said because I was too shocked to respond. But I remember where I stood when it happened. I was 17, just months away from leaving home for college, when my father called me into his bedroom one afternoon. He was sitting up in bed with his shirt off, his belly spilling over the waist of his greasy dungarees. Pall Mall cigarette butts were mashed in a nightstand ashtray, and “The Price is Right” was playing on a black and white TV.
Then it hit me: I didn’t get the right color because I couldn’t see past color. I hadn’t asked the Black employee for help because I subconsciously assumed the White one was more competent. “Damn,” I thought. “I just racially profiled a Black man—and I’m Black!” That moment humbled me. That same weekend, I did something I had never done before. Aunt Mary had mailed holiday and birthday cards to me over the years, but I stopped opening them after not hearing her apology.
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