Momma Said Knock You Out!
As many of you are, I have become addicted to this site and find myself walking and typing from my mobile device. Well yesterday at the airport I had an interesting occurrence. I accidentally bumped into three different people at three different times while type-walking.
The first guy I bumped, seemed to be Africa- probably Nigerian, grabbed me and ask if I was okay. Get that-I bumped him and he smiled and ask if I was okay.
The second lady, older seemingly retired German or German American, laughed and said “no dancing”.
The third young man, and I’m guessing here: a brother from Atlanta, gave me the official mean mug and stared me down until I was out of his sight.
I said excuse me in each case and flashed my photo ready smile to all three folks. Sadly, this wasn’t my first time being “mean mugged”. Old or young, rich or poor the stare down has become a custom for some ethnic groups of the African-American males. The rule seems to be to stare down other African-American males to prove dominance. As if in some strange eye-to-eye dance, people look each other up and down and then cut eyes. Sometimes without sound a message is transmitted that danger it close at hand.
Why do we do that?
Am I the only one, have you been mean mugged?
How does that make you feel?
How do we get past it?
The first guy I bumped, seemed to be Africa- probably Nigerian, grabbed me and ask if I was okay. Get that-I bumped him and he smiled and ask if I was okay.
The second lady, older seemingly retired German or German American, laughed and said “no dancing”.
The third young man, and I’m guessing here: a brother from Atlanta, gave me the official mean mug and stared me down until I was out of his sight.
I said excuse me in each case and flashed my photo ready smile to all three folks. Sadly, this wasn’t my first time being “mean mugged”. Old or young, rich or poor the stare down has become a custom for some ethnic groups of the African-American males. The rule seems to be to stare down other African-American males to prove dominance. As if in some strange eye-to-eye dance, people look each other up and down and then cut eyes. Sometimes without sound a message is transmitted that danger it close at hand.
Why do we do that?
Am I the only one, have you been mean mugged?
How does that make you feel?
How do we get past it?
I got stared down by japanese people when I was in Japan for 3 weeks in 1996... It was strange when men would just look at me and not look away. I learned at an early age that black people don't do that for fun unless it's male/female staring and that can also be risky haha. But I never look at a brother I don't know for more than 1 second because I don't know him, I am sure not much interested in knowing him haha. Now if it's a fine sista, then that's different.