Black Bottom 3

Once upon a time. I took a friend to the swamp bank. It was green with algae. Ugly. Not like it use to be. 

I invited a cousin. Beloved. 

We shared what we could. We answered questions. We wanted him (my new friend)  to get familiar with the past. The old days of Whitehouse/Westide. It’s fringe. It’s fun and it’s dark. It’s Southern Gothic. 

A lot was told. The Goat ( I call him that because of the stable life he has created for himself, his wife and his four daughters. He has grandchildren. He is a well known figure in the Westside community. Respected. ) made a statement about John Hysler giving the word to kill black men that were kidnapped and forced to work whiskey stills. 

The writer ran with it. He mistakenly touted stills on Old Gainseville Rd. He made up a neighborhood where the men were kidnapped from. It seems to me like these are important facts. In a story where much is left to the imagination, I cling to the known. In my opinion he made many errors. It was disappointing to me. He had no interest in us. As a matter of fact he was demeaning. As he is with most all Whitehouse/Westside people. And yet, I still call him friend.

I did not understand. Why would he do this? 

Since then I have become familiar with Thomas Sowell. He knows. He can relay the reality; reflecting the cultures of blacks and poor southern whites.  It’s real.  He said that modern writers / journalists will wait for one line that supports their agenda. And that’s it. They delve no deeper. They ask no more questions. 

Also, there are the words of Coleman Hughes. There is a trending, current theme amongst some writers and those active in civil issures, that all whites are evil and all blacks are good. All lives are dependent on the past and the plague of the white man. 

I am not a white devil. I have been called one. More than once. Merely interacting in social media. But that doesn’t make it so.  

Black Bottom.

When the writer ran off with words in his pocket. I looked at the Goat and said, “should we have said that?” He leaned in to me and gave me a look. He said, “the man was a gangster.” 

It’s a fact that John Hysler was a killer. Not a secret. He killed more white men than black men. The facts are blurred. He was a controversial figure. Then and now.

But Black Bottom is at the nadar of our Jacksonville collective conciousness. 

I have done research. It’s important to me. These men have lived inside of me, since I first heard the story. 

With God the Universe and Nature. G.U.N.  I am firing my best shots. I am cleaning my G.U.N. I am practicing and taking aim. 

One word at a time.