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I haven't shared this story with very many people, but I just had a feeling to do it now.
A few years ago, I tried my hand at door to door sales in the Atlanta area. I didn't do super well and it was 100% because of the color of my skin. Every neighborhood we went to was
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A few years ago, I tried my hand at door to door sales in the Atlanta area. I didn't do super well and it was 100% because of the color of my skin. Every neighborhood we went to was
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predominantly upper middle class to lower upper class white people. Many of my team members were from Utah and Idaho (classic summer sales bros) and had never experienced outright racism before. They would tell me stories about how they would end up selling the product (2/)
(in this case it was pest control) and the homeowner specifically asking for an non-black person to come service their home. But that's not even where I'm going with this. One day I was in one of these neighborhoods and I was knocking with no luck. I knock on this door and (3/)
the women inside was trying to talk to me through the door. I obviously can't hear her so I asked her to please either speak louder or open the door so I could talk to her. After I said that, I closed the screen door and backed away a few feet to try to not look threatening. (4/)
She said something else which I couldn't understand so I told her that I couldn't her her and to have a great day and I was on my merry way to the next house. About 2 streets later I was walking away from another door in a cul-de-sac and 2 cop cars pulled up and the officers (5/)
started questioning me what I was doing and why I was there. I told them the company I worked for and that I was doing door to door sales to make some money to support myself and new wife in college and to help pay for my wedding at the end of the summer. They asked me if I (6/)
had tried to force myself into a woman's home. Which I replied that I definitely didn't. Why would I do that? They then told me that the one woman that had talked to through the door told them that and that she had a gun on the other side and was ready to shoot me. 
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Needless to say, I was freaked out. They then asked if I had my car nearby, which I didn't because I was dropped off, and said it's probably best if I left the neighborhood because soliciting wasn't allowed there. (It was they just didn't know the law) I agreed because (8/)
I didn't want to upset anyone else let alone a few cops. So I got in one of their cars and they drove me to a gas station down the street where my team lead picked me up. I'm so glad that the woman decided not to shoot me and that the officers involved (9/)
were kind and understanding and willing to listen to what I had to say. I know this isn't the case for some. I'm grateful I haven't had any of those experiences, but I'm always wary of them. But that's not the end, my friends! The entire summer, the whole team was pushing (10/)
to stay out knocking doors until 8 or 9pm. Well past dark. They kept pushing me to do it, but I refused every single time. In no way was I, a black man, going to knock on people's doors past dusk in rich white neighborhoods in Atlanta. In Peachtree City they have a law in (11/)
place that says if you're doing any soliciting, you need a permit from the city and you're not allowed to do it past 6pm. 100% fine by me. One day I was knocking without luck and decided to sit on the curb until my ride picked me up. It was probably around 5:30 or so.(12/)
Of course my ride and like everyone on my team kept knocking after the appropriate time cuz that's just who summer sales bros are. So I'm sitting on the curb, minding my own business and a cop drives by and gets out and starts to question me. He asked if I was soliciting (13/)
I said yes I was but I wasn't anymore cuz it was after 6pm. He asked to see my ID, so I obliged and handed him my ID. He then asked where my ride was so I told him it was down the street. He then got in his car and drove off to find my ride WITH MY ID. My ride was already (14/)
on his way to pick me up so we had to sit and wait for the officer to return with my ID. When he gave it back, he gave me a ticket for SOLICITING. Everyone was pissed and luckily the company had some pretty powerful lawyers and they took care of that for me. I guess what (15/)
I'm trying to get at is that it's hard to be a black man in this country. I can't go anywhere without the fear that something might happen to me. My kids are very light skinned and I'm scared that one day someone will call the cops one because they think I kidnapped (16/)
them or something. It seems that every week there's some new story about a black man getting murdered by either white people or police officers and it scares me that I could be the next one. I want to live in a world where no one judges people by the color of their skin, (17/)
but by the contents of their heart. Be the change you want to see in the world. I love you all. 
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