Halloween Injustice! Broken hearts

So today was halloween, it is obviously a day get decked out in a costume and be really awkward as a sober adult. This afternoon, I was working in the yard trying to set up my raised garden beds for fall crops and my neighborhood kids came to hang out, they are all about 9 years old. Yesterday they helped me a ton by spreading out cardboard and newspaper on the surface of the ground so weeds wont grow through. After I finished loading the beds with dirt at about 5 pm the kids, Anthony, Stephen, Roger, and I went inside the house and made some food. We had Bok Choy, smoked sausage and some Dirty Rice. It has been a blast getting to hang out with these kids, and its fun to teach them things they aren’t going to learn in school.

After we ate it was starting to get dark so I went and put on my costume. I was a big fuzzy Tigger, a costume I made about 6 years ago. I grabbed Eavie, my dog, a pillowsack , and headed out the door to wait to gather the kids. This begins our Halloween adventure, or flop.

New Orleans within the city is a tough place to trick-or-treat there was maybe 1 house on a block that gave out candy. (my neighbors across the street gave out candy for me) We eventually made a choice to walk in the Garden District side of St. Charles, It’s the nice side. We meandered around, and stumbled upon a very active party that was for people in the Garden District Association, www.gardendistrictassociation.com. It seemed like a happening place, except for if you were a black kid! As we walked closer to the event, my kids saw kids playing football. They got a bit excited, and as we got closer they found a gate that they could open and enter discretely through the back. I stood outside the fence because of my dog, and didn’t find any harm in my kids sneaking in to play football with the other kids, that were all white. My kids jumped right in, and the other guys seemed totally accepting of it. They played a little rough, “soft tackle”, I thought that it was ok, and that I played like that when I was a kid. Everything was going great, I was afraid that one of my kids would start talking trash, or fighting, but they just played along with the other kids. I was surprised and very proud of them. Then came along an adult that realized that there were some kids that were obviously not from the neighborhood. It seemed they they automatically had a stigma that they must be bad kids. They asked if they were with me, and I claimed responsibility, and we left.

I am quite disturbed by the whole thing. It’s just tough to see kids get along so well, but adults often ruin the party. My neighborhood kids need the exposure to that different culture/lifestyle. They won’t probably get to partake in many events like that because the yuppie adults are afraid of my hood kids, that can play well with others. My kids are smart, charming, hilarious, and they are black. I am chinese. We will stick out like a sore thumb anywhere.

My heart was also broken again shortly after we left the “yuppie white folk party,” and headed back to our neighborhood, two blocks past the Garden District border street. As we somewhat split ways, I walked with Stephen he went toward a house with a hand full of people out in front of it. He was asking for candy, but along his way an older guy started to converse with him. I couldn’t tell what he was saying but it just didn’t feel good. We walked to the house next door, and talked to 2 old ladies that Stephen knew. We had to walk back by the guy that was being confrontational with Stephen, the man started to threaten him, and started to be mean to him. The guy just told him that he is a bad boy, and that he is going to beat him up. Stephen actually stayed with the issue, and put his hands up to fight. I told him to put his hands down, and asked this way older guy, 17ish, “Why the heck are you picking on such a little kid, you know he cant do anything to you?”

The guy said, “His brothers jumped me!”
In my response I questioned why he would take it out on such a little kid that had nothing to do with the situation. And why do you want to destroy such a little kids life, you’re supposed to encourage them, and love on them. Not destroy them and put fear in their hearts. You have to offer them hope, and be positive. The guy kept saying that Stephen was a bad kid, repeatedly, Now I realize that it is no wonder many of these kids don’t turn out well. It is going to be a tough challenge to help change the attitude of my neighbors about these friends of mine that I have the privilege of hanging out with. I wish I could spend move time with them.