I spent the entire weekend at home only setting foot outside to greet guest at the door. It feels like I've traveled all over the city because of the lives and experiences my guest have enlightened me with. I met a Dominican American man who's intelligence and wisdom is more captivating than his beauty, and an Italian American man who with his mother owns a struggling cleaning business in the Bronx. We all seem to have one thing in common we are preyed upon by rich white men. We all have high standards for ourselves and live by a code of personal values. We all are judged based on what we appear to be rather than who we really are.
Carlos, grew up in New York city in the time where police targeted gays and transgendered citizens on the regular. He learned at a young age that many his looks could pay a mortgage, for an education, and even a trip around the world, but his brain could take him even farther.
When Carlos walked in the door I could instantly tell that he had the smarts to get what ever he wanted. I understood that like me walking beside a car on the upper east side that people would bolt the locks on anything they deemed valuable. He was an older man who looked 19 clear clean skin, 6'2" who's smile makes you say yes to everything. Carlos opened his mouth and the stereo types just fell by the waist side. He's lived on his own since he was 13, which is part of my story as well. He also had plenty of transsexual mother figures as did I. He was all about being real and being himself and being so over what people wanted him to be. His realness stopped me in my "hiding from the world" tracks, and made me want to go on with the struggle of the human condition, listening to his story made me want to face the pain of and joys of life head on. But then he left and there I was alone left with a powerful gift his wisdom and story of hope and strength.
Giovanni lives in the house he grew up in in the Bronx. His mother sold the house to him to keep it in the family. Together with his mother they live the "American Dream" owning a cleaning business that pays for the house and other living expenses but since the recession started business has been diving down fast. Just like Carlos, Giovonni who has a dark completion smooth tattooed skin boyish features and a supper toned body, has been approached by older rich white men since the age of thirteen while strolling down New York streets. He's learned how to use what he's got to get what he wants. I'm talking about his brain.
These men have been harassed many times been in interview situations, and even been sexually harassed by police officers who would threaten arrest unless they gave them a blow job among other things. And in living a life where they were constantly harassed because of their looks they learned to adapt and use what people labeled them to be from their looks to their advantage. They realized that most of these people didn't think that they had a brain to use so they showed them just how business minded they were by knowing the law and how much time an officer receives from harassment. By making friends with these men and educating them on the fact that they were real people and if you think you can buy real people you gotta have a lot of money!
I can't elaborate on the specifics of Giovanni and Carlos's stories in order to keep thier anonymity, but I can tell you that they have the smarts to live in a dog eat dog world and come out on top. That being human they too feel pain and have been stuck on the never ending drug to numb pain rollercoasting merrry-go-round. But they also have come out on the other side of things and are over putting on airs for people or getting paid to be something they aren't.
Meeting these two has inspired me to keep pushing on.
Love&Peace
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