Unexpected Kindness

 Years ago (maybe late 2017-early 2018, somewhere in that ballpark) a friend of mine named Arturo resolved a problem I had with an older Puerto Rican kid at my middle school. The day prior, we had gotten into a heated exchange on the street outside of school, during which I said some detestable things about his mom's sexual proclivities, and he punched me in my head for it. I had two of my dogs with me and they just let me get rocked. Our relationship wasn't really the same after that, as you might've guessed. Fast forward to the next day, and I was so fearful of getting jumped on my way home that I smuggled a small pot in my backpack to use to fend off my imagined assailants. Arturo eventually found out and I explained to him why this was, and he resolved my beef with the dude that same afternoon. I had no idea he had the kind of clout needed to do something like that. Safe to say I felt grateful for his intervention, and I still cite that moment as my go-to anecdotal evidence for what a homie solid looks like in practice.


We also learned about colorism in India today. I think my perception of Indian culture has been skewed in a negative fashion since I'm more knowledgeable of the unpleasant aspects of India and am less informed on its redeeming aspects. That said, I'm sure the same is true for Indians when it comes to their perspectives on Americans and our weird behaviors, so I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Colorism exists in places all over the world, though. Any nation that isn't ethnically homogeneous has some variation of this prejudiced school of thought to some degree and India is no different. They are really extreme about it, though. I'm sorry to say, but skin bleaching will never not be funny to me. It's so hard to take seriously as an issue affecting society. Like, damn, dude. You wanna be white so bad it's embarrassing. 

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