Life Among The Barbarians

Guest Post by Cole Riley

When Abby invited me to do a guest blog on her blog, Random Musings, I leaped at the opportunity. The timing was perfect. This week, my novel, Little White Lies, was published by Zane’s imprint at Simon & Schuster, Strebor Books. It is causing quite a stir. It has already been chosen as the main selection by the Black Expressions Book Club for December.

As my friend Zane says, “Little White Lies is an amazing novel about how making one bad mistake can change your entire life. It gives new meaning to "being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” However, in this terrible age of Trayvon Martin and the stop-and-frisk epidemic, I believe its themes are deeper than that. It’s about an all-out war against young black males and their neutralization by the greater society. As a journalist and former long-time reporter with The New York Daily News, I witnessed how the plagues of educational, economic, and legal freedoms are denied them.

Ask Abbie: A Matter of Black And White and Ego

White Guy With Black Girl Issue Asks:

So I've been working closely with a beautiful black woman for the past couple of months. Drive her home, take her out for food and drink a couple times, turn my game up to full power, get her in a hotel (sorry she is married and I knew and didn't care. Whole nother issue). Lucky for me it seems I'm one of the white guys with a big fat dick, know what I want and, know how to give it. It's a big secret, so no one knows and, the other day I overhear her with other black coworkers talking about how she would "never fuck wit a white boy". Blah blah except this one white guy, hot, movie star or someone. I'm pissed but, more than pissed I'm hurt. Hung out one night shortly after and admittingly I was not myself, got out, got distracted but, still looking to rationally state my case to her.


For some reason I'd like to continue our relationship (probably those hips and lips) but, I really want her to understand what she did and why it was wrong, or am I wrong?

Black, White and Grey

 

Not shying away from race, we sat in an Italian gelateria and openly discussed black and white. He's from the Midwest and feels at home when he visits NY. He's accepted here for being himself, regardless of his skin color or race that he identifies with.

He broke it down for me. Where he's from there's only black and white. Racially, but also where you live and how you act. The white people who act "black" are called "wiggers". The black people who act white are "Uncle Toms". I was familiar with the terminology although I don't hear them much in my circle. "So you're either black or white, but you, you're grey."

There are stereotypes and generalizations that persist; certain actions, behaviors and mannerisms are assigned to certain groups of people. Certain beliefs and ideologies are considered "normal" for one group and not the other. In his city of 297,000 he's considered weird because of his style of dress and lifestyle. His take? I'd be considered weird too.



In a world of black and white, I'm grey. That's one of the best compliments I've ever received.

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Race Relations in Motor City (Bar)

Last night, I ended up at Motor City Bar. I like that the vibe there is never pretentious, it's a great mix of clientele and it'll be the setting for my upcoming photo shoot (see: Graffiti Butt)

I had conversations with interesting men at the bar -- maybe because we didn't know one another we were more direct, more quickly. The underlying theme of our conversations: race.

"So whereabouts in Brooklyn are you from?"

I answered his question but later it hit me -- I didn't tell this man I was from Brooklyn. I asked how he knew I was "from Brooklyn" and he said he's been in NY for 25 years and has learned to "just tell". Moments before that, I tried to pinpoint the origin of his brogue. I guessed Ireland, he's Scottish.