What do you really know?

This question has been on my mind for awhile now, I think ever since the idiot Geraldo Rivera stated that Trayvon shouldn't have been wearing his hoodie on that fateful, rainy night in Florida. Throughout all the maddening comments made on Fox and all of the insipid comments made on facebook by white people, I am curious...

How much do they know about Black people?

I ask because I have heard time and time again that we who have the audacity to say regarding race in this country, that we are playing the "race card". I find that laughable, especially when it's white people who usually jump to the race thing first, before anyone else. Take for instance that horrible murder of Christopher Lane, the Aussie baseball player. Fox News IMMEDIATELY threw up pictures of suspects who were all Black. Did they wait to get confirmation of the suspects? Did they wait for verification of their racial makeup? No! They ran with what they just KNEW had to be the case, that three Black boys shot and killed a white man "just because". They played the race card before ANYONE else, and yet it's Black people who run for that card all the time.

How many Black people, real Black people do the folks on Fox, facebook, or twitter know? I'm not talking about the Black people that agree with them, that they converse with in the makeup room or share a latte and a blueberry scone with in the morning. I'm talking about the hard working Black and brown people that pay taxes, live in apartment buildings, tenements, co-ops, condo's, and houses. Those who have never committed a crime in their lives, never tried a drug, and never took a drink of alcohol. Have the Fox folk, ignorant facebookers, and Romney voters ever really met a Black person, or have they concocted what a Black person is like in their minds?

I ask because it's those folks that want to tell Black people what we should do. They want to tell us what we should wear. They want to instruct us on what we should "get over already". They presume to know what's best for us as if we can't figure it out for ourselves. Have they ever met a Black person or are their worlds Lilly white? See, there are some white people that on a day to day basis never have to see a Black or brown face should they choose not to. They can leave their buildings or their houses, get in their cars or a cab (ignoring the driver), go to work, or wherever; which me be completely devoid of diversity. They could then leave their places of business, get back in their cars or get another cab (again ignoring the driver), and go to a club or a bar completely devoid of diversity yet again. And they can wake up the next day and do it all over again. Black folk don't have such a luxury of never having to see a white face should we choose not to.

Have they ever met a Black person up close, seen the frustration or the fear in our faces, heard the anger in our voices, or caught the swagger in our walk? Have they been to the house of a Black person? Have they eaten the home cooked food of a Black person, listened to our music, danced to it (or tried to), read our books, and learned about who WE say our heroes are? I doubt it, because if they had, most of the drivel that comes falling out of their mouths would cease, much of the poison floating around in their minds would drain out of their ears, and those blinders they wear would fall off their heads. They would finally see us for who we are and they would know that until THEY face their history, we will never get over ours.