Mr Leon*

Down here I get called Mr Leon, by Black people. I don't want to be Mr Leon. I am called that because I am white. Yesterday at the funeral people who hadn't seen  Barbara in a while wanted to speak to her but they were intimidated by me because I am a white guy. They don't call a Black man Mr So and So.  I have tried for years to cross racial boundaries. But I am sort of a quiet person and not real outgoing. People told Barbara they wanted to speak to me but didn't know what to say. The only reason being I am white.  I can be intimidating when I want to be, but I really don't try to be. Sometimes you want to think we have come a long way from the '60s. And I am sure it is not the same on the west coast. We are not to have respect of persons so the Bible tells us or we sin.  If we believe the Bible, then we have to believe everyone alive today could trace their ancestry back to Noah, if it were possible. We would have a common ancestor in Great Great....... Great Grandfather Noah. What I have experienced is in the white church you have controlling people and people that do not want to do anything and you have the same thing in the black church. Different personalities, different attitudes, some with superiority complexes and others with inferior complexes and everything between.  People are people. Why do they still feel intimidated by a white man? Actually, there were older people back in the west that felt because I volunteered at a Tacoma Police substation I could do something about the house across the street belonging to black people that got boarded up by the city. I believe I can be intimidating sometimes, but I also think at times I intimidated Jenie, my first wife, also. I remember Mr K in South Carolina years ago. I could tell the minute I was introduced to him that he did not like me because I was white. I understood that because he had family that went to a police station and were never seen again. "To you", he said to me, "I am Mr K".  Ok, Mr K, I'm ok with that, I understood.  I don't want to be Mr Leon, I just want to be another man, color aside. I don't want to be the White Man married to Barbara, I just want to be Barbara's husband.  I believe we have to continue to cross racial boundaries until there is no longer a distinction of white and black. I do think it is ok to describe someone as the 6' 3" tall slender black man with the long white hair, or the short stubby balding white man that lives down on the corner. I believe crossing racial boundaries is needed. It was suggested by Promise Keepers years ago to cross racial boundaries and form friendships with men of other races. I believe it is a good thing and the only way we will get past calling a white man Mr So and So. God bless, LVZ.
Calling someone Mr can be out of respect, I just don't want it to be because I am White.