Hood Roots

Hood Roots (First taste of racism) part 3

After my Grandpa died things will never be the same I didn't really have any male role models in my life.
My biological father was MIA. It's hard growing up a kid without your father especially in the hood.
My neighborhood was full of drug dealers and gangs. Lucky for me I was too young to be directly affected by the gangs or the drug dealers, especially since my mother limited when I and my sister could go outside.
I spent a lot of time looking out the window. After a while, I and my sister got used to being the two flies on the wall.
We witnessed shootings, gang wars, and drug exchanges. We even witnessed sexual acts from open windows. I had my mom buy me toy binoculars and my nosy ass would spy on the whole block. It was the summer of 1979 and my mom decided to let me outside to play. We didn't have a lot of toys and the ones I and my sister did have we were not allowed to take them outside so I had to be creative.
We played in the mud, we played with the insects and when other kids' parents let them out we played with them.
I really didn't have any friends in my neighborhood, at least not yet.
My mom told me to stay close to the house this day and as I sat outside I noticed the streets being flooded with people. I know, it's a parade. I had seen these things on T.V a few times. My T.V was black and white and sure Nuff, these ones were too.
Rows and rows of people marched down the street all in pretty white gowns but they all had these cone-shaped hats that covered there faces. Even the police walked with them so I figured they must be important. I ran into the house. Mama, mama its a parade going on. My mom walks over to the door and says what parade?
I said, down there look.
My mother looked up the street and her smile changed to fear as she snatched me into the house. Boy, that's not a parade, that's the KKK.
What is a KKK mama? My mother didn't say a word as she locked the door and sent me to my room.
I went to my perch in the bedroom window and grabbed my binoculars. I watch as this KKK walked passed the 3 highrise building across the street.
These KKK people must have been bad news because that's the first time I saw the gang activity stop.
Then out of nowhere. Pow pow pow pow. The air was full of the sound of gunshots. In fact, I heard bullets from all directions. Those KKK people and the police started running back in the direction in which they came.
My mother later explained to me who they were and next time I see them anywhere I should get to a safe place. I found it hard to understand why someone didn't like the color of my skin.
Was there something wrong with me? After that day the light came on. I started noticing the racism on T.V too.
I always thought people were people like ice cream was ice cream. There was just more than one flavor.
I got lost at the beach around age 4 and it was a white policeman that took me back to my mom. If white people didn't like black people why did this man help me that day on the beach?
I was so confused. I noticed that there were no white people in my neighborhood, no white kids in my school either. We did have a few white teachers in the school and they seemed to like us.
Maybe not all white people were bad. Maybe it was just the ones with the white hats and the ones I saw on T.V.
Why do they call me black when I was obviously a nice shade of brown?
The summer of 1979 would change the way I saw people.
I never developed a hate for white people though and since there were no white people in my neighborhood I figured I had nothing to worry about. I also didn't have to worry about them coming into my neighborhood considering the gangbanger had the neighborhood on lock. It's was safe to say white people stayed clear of my neighborhood and if they didn't like me I was happier if they did.