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All that being said, I enjoy driving in Thailand. It's far more interesting than driving in the states and far more creative. I've been here 15 years and I keep reminding myself that I am not in a hurry and have not mastered Thai driving. Overconfidence kills. But it's the best video game ever.
Racism Sucks.
I know what you're thinking. Who better to talk about racism than an 80- year-old white guy from the suburbs. I'm sure he'll clear it all up. Fat chance.
I grew up in Detroit. Ah, you're thinking, that's where he got his street cred. Nope. Detroit was a thriving city when I was a kid and we lived in a middle-class area. There were people in Detroit from all minority groups, drawn by the lure of jobs in the car companies, but I don't think there were any black or brown people in my grade school.
Then we moved south to Grosse Ile, an island in the Detroit River, and it was all white too. The closest I came to black people was when a friend took me to a Fats Domino concert. You talk about culture shock! Oh wait, we also played basketball against some black high schools from River Rouge and Inkster. But I played so little I still had no interaction with black people. At home, my mom was the liberal and my dad was the conservative. I think he grew up with racism but he was a smart guy and wised up.
College was the first time I ever spent in classrooms and dorms with people of other races and it was fascinating.
In my last year of college I got elected president of my fraternity and the only black person there was our cook. It was dead wrong. Racist. Later I resigned from the fraternity because of it but it was way too little and way too late.
Our cook had worked years on the railroads, retired, and now was making money cooking for us. His name was Elmo Johnson and I used to sit around the kitchen talking to him. One time he took me to a black blues bar and I loved it.
After college I entered the army in 1962 and was of course aware of the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King. As a card-carrying bleeding heart, I was a fervent supporter of both but it was hard to go to marches with an army haircut. They would've thought I was a narc.
When it came to race, I couldn't have picked a better career. Music is the great leveler, because musicians know immediately if someone can play and it