Walking into my stand-up comedy class yesterday, I was mildly surprised to find another black face in the room, and I had to shake his hand and give him some dap before I did anything else. I realized afterward this was a little bit rude because he was one of the few people in the room that I didn’t actually know personally, and normally I would greet my friends first.
But this was different. I was explaining to Alex, the instructor, that this was kind of a black Portland thing.
Even if you’re like thirty yards away, you just have togive a little nod of recognition when you see another black person, particularly in an environment where you don’t expect to see many – which, once you get even a few rungs up the ladder, means pretty much everywhere you go. It’s like being a secret club or something.
When my uncle Paul married my aunt Gerutha, two really large black Portland families unofficially joined forces, so now I’m probably distantly related to one out of every three black people in Portland. (
Being black in Portland means that your play cousin might actually be your cousin.) So I don’t know Mitchell S. Jackson personally, but as a black Portland native, that hardly matters. I’m sure we know many of the same people.
I think a lot about moving elsewhere, even though I have no concrete means to do so. It’s the habitual daydreaming of unfulfilled longing. I enjoy visiting other cities a lot, just so I can be surrounded by more black and brown faces. I love serving as a worship leader, but it gets old having to work hard to recruit people to sing for the choir. It gets old being the only one saying “amen” during the sermon. After awhile, these little things, they get to you.
just googled
like I said I don't blame black people for not wanting to live in big cac cities like portland and seattle
