{"id":12484,"date":"2014-07-02T05:19:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T05:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/carlosspearman\/?p=41"},"modified":"2014-07-02T05:19:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T05:19:13","slug":"its-still-alive-theyre-just-concealing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/its-still-alive-theyre-just-concealing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Still Alive They’re Just Concealing It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I was at the World Cup viewing party that took place at Campus Martius. And to my surprise I was slapped with a stereotype that no matter how hard I try, or how far my career takes me, I feel that I will never be able to escape. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let me give you a little back story of why I decided to spend the hour or so at the viewing party. I heared that there is a World Cup viewing party at Campus Martius, and I tell my friend, \u201dthis will be the perfect place for me to experience the Downtown Detroit energy.\u201d I decided to ride my bike to the festivities and park it at the Chase building, which is located across the street from Campus Martius. <\/span><\/p>\n

After an eventful first half, in which I\u00a0seen some of Tim Howard\u2019s most eventful saves, I decided that I could not deal with the up and down emotions in public. So, I decided to watch the second half from the comforts of my own home. As I was unlocking my bike from the bike rack located outside of the Chase building, I noticed\u00a0a guy running full speed right at me. When he finally approached me, still trying to catch his breath he uttered, \u201cIs that your bike?\u201d I did not feel that the question deserved a response, but seeing that there were also two other people taking bikes off the bike racks I replied to the silly question \u201cYes, it is!\u201d I was hoping that me answering the question in a timely manner would allow him to ask the other two individuals that were also at the bike rack that very same question before they were able to ride away. Needless to say that never happened!<\/span><\/p>\n

Once I answered the question of \u201cIs that your bike?\u201d he sent a rebuttal my way asking, \u201cAre you sure?\u201d At that point I had enough of his line of questioning, so I decided to just ride away. But before I could paddle twice I notice two Quicken Loans security guards approaching me at full speed. \u201cSir, get off the bike\u201d said the first security guard to reach me. As I took one foot off the bike I replied, \u201cThis is my bike and I will not be getting off.\u201d Now surrounded by three security guards focused on proving that this is not my bike, I decide to use my college education and turn this into an argument. Not an argument that they would normally expect from a common bike thief, but an argument as a coherent series of statements leading from a premise to a conclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Premise one: The lock is still on the bike and shows no signs of being tampered with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Premise two: I still have a key in my hand that unlocks the lock that is currently on this bike.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion: This must be my bike lock on this bike.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf that conclusion is true then it is not farfetched to believe that this is my bike!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To my surprise the first response that came from one of the Quicken Loans\u2019 security guards was, \u201cWhere is the other bike lock?\u201d Now I realize that I have to respond in a way that will make me the angry black guy, which will probably cause cameras to get pulled out, and I might just make it on the internet. Then something that my Grandma Louise always told me came to the front of my mind. She would always say, \u201cDon\u2019t get caught arguing with a foolish person, because people from a distance can\u2019t tell which one of you is the fool.\u201d And that is what I felt I was faced with, three fools trying to lure me into their foolishness. Instead I constructed a logical response in my head, but before I could speak it the initial security guard stated that the lock on the bike was the only lock that I had.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again the three of them look at each other and in an upbeat tone one of them said, \u201cAy, that\u2019s a nice bike.\u201d Now everything is supposed to be upbeat and forgotten. I can\u2019t take back the last 5 minutes of my life that I had to deal with this tomfoolery, and at this point I just want to exit this circle that they have formed around me as quickly as possible. Then the security guard that looked like me spoke. Possibly seeing the look on my face, and trying to defuse the thinking that was going on within my head, he stated, \u201cDon\u2019t take it personal.\u201d To which I asked him to repeat himself. I heard what he said very clearly, but I was thrown back by the first words out of his mouth to me\u00a0being not to take it personal. He responded to my request, \u201cDon\u2019t take it personal\u2026people have been stealing bikes around here.\u201d As bad as I wanted to leave the circle, I felt that I had to stay and let him know why I do take it personal. <\/span><\/p>\n

I said, \u201cThere were two other people at that bike rack. I have no idea who they are but I can tell you that I was the only non-white person there. This guy runs full speed at me and asks me about my bike.\u201d At that point the initial security guard leaves the scene. And I continued, \u201cThere might have very well been a bike stolen within the last 5 to 7 minutes but you will not catch them because you did not bother to focus on anyone but me\u2026How is it that I get the attention of three of you and neither of you even asked the other two guys if the bike that they had were theirs? So do not tell me not to take it personal because it is\u2026It is personal because of how I personally look, and the prejudices that exist in your heads of a person that looks like me. You made it personal and you have to live with that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As I began to ride away I realized that they were still trying to gather a response, so I stayed to listen. Honestly, I was waiting for an apology, but what I received was a lot better. One of them said, \u201cthat\u2019s a nice lock. Is that the bulletproof one? Where did you get that from?\u201d I told him where I got it from as I rode away. That was the best response that he come up with, even after I just informed him of a group mistake that he was involved in. It reaffirmed to me that an ignorant person that\u00a0does not\u00a0want to know can no longer be considered ignorant. At that point the ignorant person is just foolish. And I was right not to get into a verbal sparring match with this foolish person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Racism as defined by Merriam Webster\u2019s Dictionary \u201cdiscrimination against a person or persons based on their race.\u201d It\u2019s still alive they\u2019re just concealing it. And the racist are not even doing a good job at concealing it anymore. Gandhi once said \u201cYou must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.\u201d They are making it hard for the non-racist people in this world to come together. As for me, I\u2019m not ignorant to the fact that not all people of a certain race are racist. And I pray that any person out there that has experienced similar treatment does not lose their faith. We are all in this battle together, and if you need someone to assist you along this journey you do not have to look any further. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Today, I was at the World Cup viewing party that took place at Campus Martius. And to my surprise I was slapped with a stereotype that no matter how hard I try, or how far my career takes me, I feel that I will never be able to escape. Let me give you a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}