I work as a security guard in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Not the most glamorous job in the world, especially for a guy in his late twenties who's close to completing his university studies in the Capital after a long hiatus from the higher education system. The name is Stephenson Jacques, and I'm a big and tall young Black man of Haitian descent with a story to share with you. Struggling to pay rent and tuition is nothing new to me, but dealing with heartache at the same time definitely took its toll on a brother.
Alright, a few months ago I got dumped by Dominique Abbasid, the lovely Middle-Eastern gal I'd been dating for the past year or so. Dominique and I came from different worlds. I am a Haitian-Canadian guy raised in the Catholic faith, the son of immigrants who moved to Ontario from the isles of the Caribbean in the early 1990s. As for my former lady love Dominique, she's of Arab Christian descent. Tall, bronze-skinned, with long Black hair, an athletic body and a big round ass, this Arab Christian cutie was to die for. Too bad loving Dominique nearly killed me.
The Arab guys at my school like to have their way with Black girls and White girls but they don't like seeing Arab chicks with men of other races. They tend to stare when they saw Dominique and I together. Well, Dominique and I got together and stuck it out for a good while. I really thought she was the one. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Dominique dumped my Haitian ass for some red-haired White dude, and from what I can garner from their Facebook photos, they're all over each other. Good for them. Me? I am trying to move on with my life, thank you very much.
While working security, I got sent to this drugstore which needed protection on its overnight shift because of a rash of robberies in the area. I met a most remarkable woman. Monique Kilonzo, a short, pleasantly plump, lovely Black lady of Kenyan descent. Monique works as a manager with the drugstore's overnight shift, and we got along fairly well. To be honest, that surprised the hell out of me. A lot of people treat you like shit when you're a security guard. Why? I don't know.
I still have nightmares about this government office downtown where I worked as a security guard for a few months. All of these uptight snobs working for the federal government treat cleaners, security people and even construction workers like we're second-class citizens or a lower form of human being. I don't know if it's because a lot of people in those jobs are visible minorities, recent newcomers from places like Africa, Asia and Latin America. For the most part, these uptight bozos are middle-aged White guys and older White chicks, all of them with something stuck up their butts and not the fun way.
Guess who I ran into one afternoon while exiting the uptight government office? None other than Monique Kilonzo, the lovely Black lady from the Republic of Kenya. The lady was on her way to her car after making a transaction at the nearby CIBC Bank. I was one of hundreds of people stuck downtown, waiting for the OC Transpo buses. I can't stand the buses because they shortchange their clientele, and the overly entitled older White folks working in the government offices downtown still have an attitude problem while on the bus.
I just needed to catch a bus from Metcalfe Street and ride it till Bayview Station, where I'd catch the O-Train and get to the university campus easily. As easy as one, two and three. Of course, nothing was going right that day. To my right stood a well-dressed but absolutely horrible human being. An older White dude who felt it was okay to sneeze way too close to me without covering his damn mouth or apologizing.
See what I told you about their sense of entitlement? Well, I might have to watch out around these entitled old White guys at work but on the street, anyone is fair game. I told the old White bozo exactly where he could stuff it, and he blinked and stared at me, stunned. They're not used to being confronted over their bullshit in Ottawa, I swear. Everyone was staring because young Black men in Ottawa don't stand up to well-dressed, entitled and politely racist older White guys. It's like an unwritten rule or something. Well, fuck that!