Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields who provides us with a photo prompt. Each week’s challenge is to write a 100-word story inspired by the photo.
PHOTO PROMPT © C.E. Ayr
I’m later than a dead pregnant woman on this one. Too soon? Too late? It’s always too soon to joke about dead pregnant women, asshole. Fair enough. I’m later than me everywhere I’ve ever gone. I blame the holiday. No, not Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving plans were ruined by snow and road closures. I still owe $25,000 on that car. It’s staying safe in the garage. I’m talking about Black Friday Month. In addition to a much needed new car, I needed some appliances, a new bed that doesn’t hurt to sleep on, a new computer… I’ve spent the week shopping and researching and cleaning. In addition, there’s a dog in heat in the home and another with a bone, if you will, and a puppy who refuses to be house-trained. She peed on my bed two nights in a row. Of course, she’s also currently on my lap. What is it about cuteness that conquers all? My roommate’s a breeder. I would have much rather been in the Bay Area con mi familia.
My Sin
My skin is my sin.
I has to be. I didn’t do anything else wrong. I was walking home from school when the police pulled up and demanded to see my I.D.
I’m 13. I don’t have I.D.
They shoved me onto the car. One cop frisked me and held me while the other went through my backpack. Nothing illegal, so they released me.
How do I deal with this? Hate myself for my skin? Return the hatred? No. I hate the ignorance and pity the ignorant.
My skin is not a sin. Judging based on skin is a sin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My goddaughter, who is Black, Hispanic, and Original American, so dark-skinned, recently saw another Black kid get slammed to the ground and handcuffed without provocation. This is, of course, according to her. You know how kids don’t always get the whole story. However, given the recent news and the history of police brutality against those with dark skin, I don’t have a reason not to believe the story as she told it. So, it’s been on my mind a lot. I can’t believe humanity hasn’t moved passed judging people based on skin color yet. Maybe someday we’ll learn to focus on our commonalities instead of our differences.
💖
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Dear Nobbin,
Your love of rhyme shines brightly in this dark story. Thought provoking and well written.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. It’s disturbing that it should be thought-provoking. Wrong is wrong. What is there to think about? It seems we think our way into our prejudices. Then, we have to think our way out.
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I wonder if we’ll ever get past judging others by their appearance. “My skin is not a sin. Judging based on skin is a sin.” Yes indeed!
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Prejudices seem to be perpetuated from generation to generation. It’s a hard to from which to break free, but the world will be a much better place if we ever do.
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It’s difficult but not impossible to escape this cycle. The world would indeed be a much better place if we concentrated on what we had in common.
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True. We have come a long way as a people. It’s still frustrating. For every two steps forward we take a step and a half back. Obama. Trump.
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I wonder too… being blessed fair I never had any problem… but I wonder why?
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Hundreds (maybe more) of years of conditioning.
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The hatred has so stop somewhere. The road has been long and yes, circuitous… I’m hoping (okay, dreaming) this will stop. A well-written, troublesome post.
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We have to destroy the hatred and ignorance before they destroy us. We are moving closer. Very slowly and imperfectly, but it’s happening. Thank you.
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Yes we do. If we each Do a little, we can make our difference…
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There are so many cops whose skins are not white. You’d think that would help, wouldn’t you?
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I don’t have numbers on this, but I would guess it is less frequent. We’re just more aware of it given every person has the ability to make a video and share it with, literally, the world. I’m hopeful that that will lessen it more and eventually eradicate such incidents. The real issue is the underlying prejudice and perceptions that lead to such actions without forethought. The diversity within the police ranks should help with that, but if everything went as it should, we’d live in a perfect world.
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Gosh, you have touched on a huge subject. Children don’t notice skin colour, they are taught how to think by their parents. It’s only when the child matures that it can form its own opinions. Education is going to take several more generations, and even then, I don’t think prejudices will ever be completely obliterated. Human evolution still has a long way to go.
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My thoughts pretty much exactly.
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True judging based on skin is wrong.
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Indeed!
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Powerful writing, well done,
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Thank you.
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