LOCAL STORY “At its core, homelessness is a result of systemic issues and the resulting inequities which disproportionately affect different races. As evident in ... all data on the issue, there is a glaring overrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, people of color in the homeless population.” –METRO DENVER HOMELESS INITIATIVE CREDIT: PAULA BARD CREDIT: PAULA BARD Barely making ends meet from month to month. Barely eating from day-to-day. See, the country has a debt to pay to Black people, and until this is done, we will not be on an equal economic base. You’re talking about an economic as well as a moral base. Blacks were enslaved, this history just hovers there, like a ghost. Can our country reckon with its history? It’s got to be dealt with in a way that is beneficial to all, especially Black people. Just to apologize, that’s not enough. With an apology, you still wake up hungry. COMING FROM ANNISTON, ALABAMA How does this feel to you personally to see this go on and on? It’s a messed-up feeling. It’s about power, keeping things under their control. Most of the bad things that have happened to me have come from the hands of white people. Can we talk about that? That you have been treated that way. That you carry this. Me growing up in the South, there are things you can and can’t do. Cannot say. Even though it was 100 years past slavery, you could not be hanging out with white people too much. Once you got to be 12 years old, you were not to be with a white person. What year was that? How old were you? I’m 58 now, so ’72, give or take. So, it was dangerous to hang out with white people, then? It was very dangerous. You had to be very careful about what neighborhood you walked through—any time of day. For me to come home from school sometimes when I was in junior high, I couldn’t take the short cut. I had to walk all the way downtown. What would have happened? I could have gotten jumped, or sometimes you gotta run because a bunch of white people would be out there waiting for you. THE JESTER ELICITS A SMILE — HIS HUMOR AS A SHIELD. CREDIT: PAULA BARD So, you’re learning at a really young age that things are not what they seem? To pay some attention because there are multiple layers? I grew up in a world where things are not as they seem. But at the same time, you have to be able to process it in a way to where it can benefit you in the long run and not hinder you, you know? So, I was able to do that. And you were able to do that because your family and your teachers told you that you had value and encouraged you. You felt recognized. It sounds like you had a deep sense of your own value. Well, I knew who I was. People are going to do what they are going to do and say what they are going to say. I have no control over that. The only thing I have control over is what I can do. That is the way I was brought up. A PLATFORM FOR THE ISSUE OF RACE People came, people gave talks, so after the vigil, then what? We should have gotten city council and the mayor involved, talked to them about what we need to do as a community, as a city. Well, Denver, maybe this work will help bring us another step closer to a much needed and long-overdue conversation. ■ This happened to you, just walking down the street? This happened to me on many occasions. So, trying to get home from school, home from football practice, and all of a sudden, you see three or four white guys start chasing you out of the neighborhood. They’re chasing you because they don’t want you in the neighborhood? Not only that, no matter what you do, they are going to treat you like you’re a second-rate citizen. Not treated with respect. How does it feel to be raised in a culture that told you that you had less value than someone else with a different color of skin? How does that feel? How do you process that? I had a mom that cared; I had sisters that looked out for us. I had a family that ate together every single day. I had teachers that were Black that lived in my neighborhood. They saw value in me. I went to a mostly Black school. I was taught that I was somebody. Some of the white people that I knew gave me encouragement. Like Mundy’s, for instance, back home, they owned a store; I used to shop there for my mom. They would sit down and talk to me as if I was a person. But, I understood and remembered some of their voices from under a sheet. It was kinda like that. December 2020 DENVER VOICE 5
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