A group of young tourists wandered backstage at the Montreal International Jazz Festival performance. The technician rolled his eyes when he saw them. From the look of their designer jeans and hand stitched hemp backpacks, they were Ivy League brats. Benjamin was busy editing the clips from that morning's interview with the performers. He did not have time for self important canvassers.
The leader of the group took a pamphlet from his bag and offered it to Benjamin. "We have a website. The address is on the back," he boasted.
Benjamin glanced at the political material. The title read, "Unite Against Western Oppression". He cocked an eye and looked at the man who was a decade his junior. "Parlez vous francais, s'il vous plait."
The college students stuttered, "Unite, join, unity, fight, uh, resistance -"
Benjamin cut him short. "Don't worry, I know English. What made you think I want to take down the West? I'm a Westerner."
"But you're African-American."
"I'm American-American. My parents moved to New York City in the 70's shortly after Jean-Claude took control of their country. You have no idea what oppression is like."
"Africa is only unstable because of European colonialism."
"Try again."
"What?" By now the college student was looking very uncomfortable.
"My parents were born in Haiti." Benjamin smirked, "What school do you go to anyway?"
"Columbia."
"No wonder. Go make yourself useful by reading up on their expansion plan. I have work to do. Oh, and next time you go politicking outside the US, you might want to bother learning the local language."
Benjamin went back to editing his video. Once he had it perfected, he started the processing. Looking up from his laptop, he noticed a stagehand taping the wires to the stage floor.
Nice ass,
he thought to himself. Benjamin stretched and rubbed his muscular arms.
Yeah, I could tap that.