A Black Man's Nod, and other responsbilites that I don't get

I was eating with my wife at lunch today, having to go out and spend money our currently 1-income family really didn't have at the moment, due to a refrigerator deciding to say to us "Hey folks, fuck you and your dog, too" earlier in the week. While I was enjoying my sandwich, a younger fellow than myself, dressed all in black (inexplicably on a warm ass day in late August) with a slight limp locked eyes with me, and nodded. As if someone turned on my "say hello back" switch, I nodded back.

The young man was black like myself, and I always seem to say "what's up" whenever another black male says hello to me...

...as if it is necessary to keep my NAACP Card.

(oh, I don't belong to the NAACP; but you get my point).

I always wondered why I feel that I have to acknowledge other black men when they do the nod towards me, or say "what up", or whatever choice of greeting they choose to toss in my general direction. Back in the day (and currently, for that matter) I had very few males of color as associates or friends. It isn't that I wouldn't of like having more friends that can relate to me as a black man in America, but men in general when it comes to friends I have not much to discuss with them beyond sports, lies about sex (well, I am married, so I can really lie THAT much), and other quickly dull subjects. The way I am wired (which is totally screwy) I tended to think about this every time this event took place.

I automatically start to think about some black males and how they are portrayed in the media. We may have a "brother" (and a neighbor of mine argued how is he considered black if Barack Obama is half white, but that's another 10% of black blood argument bullshit story), but we still aren't exactly shone in a great light. A lot of that is brought upon the race themselves, despite the denial of the obvious.

A bigger thing that comes to mind, however, is that this simple nod amongst black males is like some sort of bonding, yet we keep screwing each other over, 30 million strong, whether it is black on black crime, or hell, just, as the young folks would say (ugh, it hurt me to say that) "hatin'" on one another.

Not to say that blacks have the market cornered on "hatin'", but for folks who are at a disadvantage (and it grows greater, as that we are no longer the major minority here in the US) it would be nice if we united more often. It seems that it would be so simple to do something like that...sort of like a head nod when one passes by in a sandwich shop.

But then again, you'd figure 545 people could figure out how to govern, yet human nature and greed stops that from happening as well.

OK, just a brief thought. Back to watching the paint dry.