Richard

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Growing up in Oakland, California, one of my best friends was a guy named Richard. We went to the same schools from Elementary, Junior High, and High School. The event I will mention in this article took place during our Senior year at Skyline High School in Oakland in 1971.

Before I go into that I need to give you some background information.

Me and Richard were best friends. We were inseparable. We did everything together. Now remember this started in 1964 when we moved to live in the Oakland hills near Sequoia Country Club.

Back then we didn’t have the stupid racial bullshit we have today. I am White. Richard is Black. We were like twins only different skin colors.

It was maybe when me and Richard were in either 9^th Grade in Junior High or in 10^th Grade in High School when my mother walked up to me while I was alone in the house, as Richard just left to return home, and she said the following:

Mother: Andy I just noticed something.

Me: What?

Mother: Richard is Black.

Me: Yeah and Richard has been black since we became friends in 1964 so your point is?

Mother: I just never noticed he was Black.

For me that was a good thing. My parents didn’t look at others as White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, or something else. They looked at them as people.

So what happened in 1971 during our Senior year at Skyline High School? I drove to school and was walking past the Administration building where our flagpole was located. I noticed about 10 to 15 Black students marching around the flagpole chanting things about equal rights, equality, and saying things like they were under-privileged. I saw Richard, my best friend of seven years, marking around the flagpole with a sign that said I’M UNDER-PRIVILEGED.

I walked up to the group marching around the flagpole and up to Richard. I asked Richard how he can hold a sign saying he is under-privileged when his father, as a Deputy Sheriff with Alameda County makes more than my father who woks as an Electrician for the City of Oakland. I also asked Richard since we both live in the same well-do-do rich people neighborhood of Oakland, and his house was nicer than our house in the same neighborhood, how can he say he is under-privileged.

Richard’s answer: ANDY YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND.

My response: YOU KNOW WHAT RICHARD? I GUESS I DON’T UNDERSTAND.

I turned and walked away. I lost my best friend and never got to hook up with him again.

Today we see the same bullshit where people are being brainwashed into believing things that are not true and they mistreat others based on their false assumptions.