Want to see what other Savvy visitors have to say? Read our letters of the
week, and be sure to tell us what you think. We'd love to hear from you!
How to Be a White Man
I spend the winter in the bush of Jamaica, where I'm the only foreigner for miles. One morning while out walking, I came across a Rasta man who was coming toward me on the path. He carried a machete, and was wearing a beautiful purple tam that he tucked his dreadlocks inside.
I must have been staring at his hat, because after we passed, he stopped and shouted, "White man!" I turned to face him, and he asked me what I was staring at. I told him it was his beautiful tam that caught my attention, and asked him if he had made it. He didn't answer. Instead he came right up into my face and said, "Are you afraid of me?"
I said, "Well, I don't know. Should I be?"
"White men are afraid of black men," he responded.
"They are?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Okay, then," I said. "The next time I meet you on the path, I'll know to be afraid of you."
With that, the man just laughed and became a totally different person. I asked him what I had said that was so funny.
He said, "I can't teach you how to be a white man. I'm a Rasta man. You're supposed to know."
The two of us just stood on the path and laughed.
John
Woodstock, NY
