Oreo Dues, the Foolishness of Black on Black Racial Profiling
listened to this girl. They figured, if she roomed with me, she had to know. Nobody spoke to me. They just assumed.” Bailey says those days, “taught me to be careful not to judge other blacks.” Gerald Beckles grew up in Central Islip, a Long Island, N.Y. suburb. The neighborhood was made of blacks who had made something of themselves. A pharmacist, a landscaper, more than a few folk holding down a good paycheck at Central Islip State Hospital. Gerald’s dad had left a rough section of The Bronx to raise a family in peace, quiet and safety. Gerry was not permitted to run the streets or use foul language. He carried himself like a courteous, well-bred young man. That was on Ferndale Boulevard, a nice stretch of land along which black folk had no problem being civilized. A mile or so away was Carleton Park, a real niggervile of congested, dilapidated housing. There lived the roughest, toughest black teenagers in town. Some of the dumbest, too. Lucky if they could read their names, let alone a schoolbook. They went to the same high school as Gerry and missed few opportunities to mess with him. It was always about him wanting to white. “My father sent to me to school to do good. Was it my fault I good the best grades? Was it my fault practically all the other students in the accelerated classes were white?” Beckles wound up going onto and graduating University of Notre Dame. “If those kids had spent less time calling me names and more time getting grades, they might be somewhere in life today. Most of them, I hate to say it, are in jail, dead or on crack. I don’t wish bad on anybody, but they made their choice.” This black-on-black stereotyping doesn’t deny its victims good jobs or nice housing. It’ll never become a civil rights issue. It does, however, make people pay senseless dues.
Twin Cities Daily Planet articles archived at www.tcdailyplanet.net/profiles/dwight-hobbes. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary column Something I Said). He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Blog Talk Radio’s UNOBSTRUCTED and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder speaks to domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. He fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. www.myspace.com/dwighthobbesmusic