The White Boy Tantrum

Black folk,

Remember when our black mommas would beat our tail for "acting out" in public?

Let me jog your memory. It could have been something as minute as asking politely, then angrily demanding a quarter so you can play the Space Invaders game at the arcade; it could have been as simple as demanding, and crying, and stomping your feet because you wanted a piece of Bazooka bubble gum. It doesn't matter. The point is--that growing up in a black household back in the day, you knew not to act like those "bad white kids" as our parents would say. And, if we did act up, especially in public it would have been the Black World War II.

A friend of mine told me a story of how he "acted up" in elementary school. The same school that his mother taught. After his teacher told his mother of what he did in the classroom, she peeked her head into the room, smiled, waved at him and said, "After school--it's Hammer Time". No one knew what that meant. However, he did.

When he arrived him, his mother's car was gone--he thought he was safe. He went upstairs into the house, took of his clothes, opened up his closet to get new clothes to put on--and instantly, like a bat out of hell, his mother flew out of the closet, red shoe in hand, and beat the living daylights out of him. (She hid her car a few blocks away, to make sure he'd be unprepared.)

My point is--one damn severe beating, we learned.

So a few weeks ago I was with a friend of mine, eating dinner. Together we noticed this curly-haired white boy throw a tantrum on the sidewalk. His parents continued to talk to him, child-like, begging him to stand up. Then, they ignored him and talked amongst themselves.

If this had been a black family--I'm sure the outcome would have been different. Take a peek at the pics.