Antone's Nightclub
Calling a Spade a Spade?
RECEIVED Tue., Aug. 15, 2006
Dear Editor,
About three or four sentences into this article, I got that gut feeling, kinda like Audrey San Miguel's about those black girls who robbed her shop ["Vintage Thieves," News, Aug. 11]. I got that same gut feeling about where this article was headed. I was reading and praying at the same time, "Lord, please don't let the thieves be black, please don't let 'em be black!" Then, I saw it, right there in black and white, "they were so well-spoken" (Karen Jo Vennes). Oh my God! Did she say "so well-spoken"? No, she didn't!
Why are white/nonblack people so surprised that Negroes can speak English? Why are they so surprised that some of us speak English well? We've been here a long time. We were bound to pick up a few phrases here and there.
I know these boutique-owner types; they are innocent, pure, and clueless. We should wrap them in a cocoon of love and protect them from reality – the reality that Austin is not Mayberry and that one must protect one's business. I am sorry and embarrassed that these black chicks have taken advantage of their so-called trusting hearts, I really am. The black community does not need this bad press and it is tough for the small-business owner. But what I don't appreciate about these victims, at least the ones featured in the article, is that because of their stupidity, they now feel justified to do what they do anyway, follow that rare black customer around their stores and watch them like hawks. The gut feeling that Audrey San Miguel had had little to do with intuition and more to do with her own prejudices. She should just call a spade a spade – or maybe that's what she was doing in her own innocent way.
About three or four sentences into this article, I got that gut feeling, kinda like Audrey San Miguel's about those black girls who robbed her shop ["Vintage Thieves," News, Aug. 11]. I got that same gut feeling about where this article was headed. I was reading and praying at the same time, "Lord, please don't let the thieves be black, please don't let 'em be black!" Then, I saw it, right there in black and white, "they were so well-spoken" (Karen Jo Vennes). Oh my God! Did she say "so well-spoken"? No, she didn't!
Why are white/nonblack people so surprised that Negroes can speak English? Why are they so surprised that some of us speak English well? We've been here a long time. We were bound to pick up a few phrases here and there.
I know these boutique-owner types; they are innocent, pure, and clueless. We should wrap them in a cocoon of love and protect them from reality – the reality that Austin is not Mayberry and that one must protect one's business. I am sorry and embarrassed that these black chicks have taken advantage of their so-called trusting hearts, I really am. The black community does not need this bad press and it is tough for the small-business owner. But what I don't appreciate about these victims, at least the ones featured in the article, is that because of their stupidity, they now feel justified to do what they do anyway, follow that rare black customer around their stores and watch them like hawks. The gut feeling that Audrey San Miguel had had little to do with intuition and more to do with her own prejudices. She should just call a spade a spade – or maybe that's what she was doing in her own innocent way.
Kinaya Ulbrich