When Arab Girls Love Blac Men

He wasn't supposed to talk to her kind, that's what his parents said. Looking at White girls leads to nothing but trouble when you're Black and male. Besides, weren't they all fake anyway? Always throwing themselves at a brother in a club but also switching sidewalks when they see you coming at night. Impossible to figure them out, that's for sure. Alexander Champagne walked back to his apartment in the town of Orleans, Ontario. It was Friday night and as usual the tall young Haitian man basically had nothing to do. He was done studying for his Criminology midterms at Carleton University, and with his buddies Thomas and Joseph heading to the City of Toronto to be with their families for thanksgiving, he found himself alone. His parents were vacationing in the Caribbean.

He tried not to think about the White chick he saw walking down on Jeanne D'Arc road, strutting her stuff. Damn. White chicks in Canada weren't like the ones he used to see in his native Gonaives City, Republic of Haiti. White women in Canada were different, for starters they had rounded butts and cute bodies, unlike the stick figures he saw in the European expat communities of the Caribbean. Alexander lay in bed, and called his friend Victoria Saint Jean, a gal he'd known since his days in the island of Haiti, long before his parents moved to Canada. At one point, they were the only Black families in their block of Orleans. After three rings she answered, curtly telling him that she was getting ready for her date with Todd. At the mention of Todd's name, Alexander cringed. Todd was the tall, skinny White dude he'd seen Victoria walk around with at Saint Laurent Mall last week. The dude had his hands all over her. When Victoria noticed Alexander looking at them, she walked over to him and introduced her new boyfriend. Todd Jefferson, Algonquin College student of Australian descent.

Todd looked Alexander up and down, noticed the face of Ice Cube emblazed on his T-shirt and asked him if he was a rapper. Alexander stifled the urge to punch Todd in his dumb mouth. He had that White dude pegged right away. Just another racist redneck type who craved black pussy but harbored an almost pathological hatred of the black man. Alexander smirked at Todd and asked him if he was a dumb-ass, glancing at the words "I'm with stupid" written on his shirt. Todd bit his lip, and his blue eyes went icy. His arm trembled, and Alexander squared his shoulders. If this White dude wanted to fight, the Haitian was ready to go. Victoria placed herself between them, and loudly asked Alexander what in hell he was doing. Alexander glanced at the short, kinky-haired young Black woman he'd known his entire life. He barely recognized her. Meekly he told her that Todd started it, and Victoria shook her head, going on and on about his lack of maturity. Alexander shrugged, told her he had stuff to and walked away. Todd glared at him angrily the entire time.

Alexander sighed. Victoria had grown so distant with him since the incident with Todd. What in hell did she see in this guy anyway? Victoria had always been into guys who weren't Black. He'd seen her date a Chinese guy once, and she was in love with him but Lee's family weren't keen on him dating a Black woman so their relationship fizzled out. She also went out with a Mexican guy named Jose Santino, and that didn't pan out either because Jose had a rap sheet a mile long and liked to smack women around when he got drunk or angry, or both. Alexander sighed as he remembered that night when Victoria came to him with bruises on her dark, beautiful visage. Jose's handiwork. Half-maddened with anger, Alexander didn't even bother telling the police what Jose had done to Victoria. He went after the Hispanic roughneck himself. Alexander kicked Jose's ass, but Jose's friends Martinez and Luis came to the rescue and gave Alexander the whooping of a lifetime. Yeah, that's what a guy gets for playing knight in shining armor these days.

Alexander got up and looked at himself in the mirror. He stood six feet two inches tall, slim, with dark brown skin and curly black hair. His eyes were light brown, in part because his mother Maria was half Haitian and half White. Her biracial heritage was also reflected in her son's genes, apparently. Alexander knew he looked good, and he also had a good head on his shoulders. He was only twenty and was one year away from getting his bachelor's degree in Criminology from Carleton University. Next, he'd study for the LSAT and apply either to the University of Ottawa School of Law or Toronto University Law School. They were the best law schools in the province of Ontario. Yeah, he had ambition to burn. He could see himself becoming a lawyer and practicing law all over Canada, and maybe even the United States of America someday. His cousin Henry lived in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, and was studying Law at Northeastern University. Wouldn't it be cool if his generation produced two lawyers in the family? Now that would be something.

Alexander wanted to do his parents, James Champagne and Maria Fernandez Champagne, proud. Their strict catholic upbringing kept him on the straight and narrow path. He was headed to a bright future, unlike so many other young Black men out there with criminal records and no education. So many brothers with potential wasted their time and energy, ultimately meeting nefarious ends. Alexander looked around his apartment, got bored and decided to go for a walk. He was walking along the Boulevard Des Epinettes when he heard a scream. He looked around, and saw a young woman running. There was a dog running in front of her. A Jack Russell terrier. The little dog had escaped from the young woman's hands and was racing down the sidewalk. For some reason, the little fur ball got the bright idea of crossing the street...bad idea because a big minivan was coming.

Alexander never hesitated. Fueled with adrenaline, he pumped his legs and raced across the street, catching the little dog and throwing himself to the sidewalk. The minivan missed him by mere inches, almost. Alexander slowly rose to his feet, holding onto the dog. The young woman was mere paces from him. Alexander put on a smile and asked her if the dog belonged to her. The little fur ball jumped from his arms to hers. She held onto the dog as if for dear life, alternatively crying and laughing. Alexander stood there, feeling awkward. The young woman finally looked at him and thanked him. He nodded and shook her hand. Now that she seemed to have calmed down, he allowed himself to really look at her. She was fairly tall, easily five-foot-nine or more, slim and fit, with spiky black hair, light bronze skin littered with brightly colored tattoos and light brown eyes. She wore a sleeveless Black leather jacket, black jeans and boots. The look said Biker Bitch from Hell.

Alexander realized that he was staring when the young woman cleared her throat. She introduced herself as Susan, but told him everybody called her Spike. Alexander nodded, and introduced himself as Big Al, even though he weighed one hundred and eighty pounds soaking wet. Susan, or rather, Spike smiled and thanked him again for saving her better half, Medor the dog. Alexander nodded, and she winked at him before walking away, hugging the dog tightly. Alexander smiled to himself. That lady was cute. He watched her walk away. Wow. He went home, feeling pretty good about himself. Only way he met cute girls who noticed he existed was by coming to their rescue, apparently. He went back on Facebook, and checked his messages. He had a message from his buddy Joel O'Neill, a skinny Irish guy he'd known for many years. Joel and Alexander went to the same Catholic high school and both got accepted at Carleton University's Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Joel was presently spending the semester at Texas Tech University in the U.S.A. Lucky bastard. Joel sent him a picture of himself with Veronica, the Jamaican chick he couldn't stop raving about. Alexander looked at the picture of Joel kissing a pretty young Black woman. Some guys had all the luck apparently.

Damn. Everybody was having fun except for him. Alexander got a message from his cousin Henry, a big and tall young Black man who played basketball for Northeastern University in Boston. On his Facebook profile, he was holding hands with his Hindu girlfriend Onuradha. Alexander smiled. Black man with Hindu woman. Now that was a pairing that people seldom saw. Apparently, Henry and Radha had recently gotten engaged. Alexander smiled. He was happy for his cousin. He really was. He'd never really gotten along with Henry, who used to tease him about his crush on his best friend Victoria, the hot Haitian gal who lived next door. Alexander smiled sadly. He used to worship the ground that Victoria walked on, but she never thought of him as anything other than a buddy. Also, since her first boyfriend, a Black guy named Larry cheated on her with her best friend, Victoria stopped dating Black guys. Alexander was straight out of luck.

The following Monday, he went to school. After his morning class ended, he went to the third floor of the campus library, which was undergoing renovations. He opened up WebCT to get some work done on his forensics project. So absorbed was he by the work he was doing that he didn't notice someone looking at him. When that same person sat next to him, and tapped him on the shoulder, he jerked in surprise. Alexander almost gasped when someone jabbed their fingers into his shoulder. He looked up...and froze. A very beautiful young woman with short hair dressed entirely in Black leather. Susan! Alexander smiled. She shook his hand, and asked him how he was doing. Alexander was quite shocked to see her at Carleton, and told her as much. Susan grinned, and told him she got tossed out of Ottawa University so she had nowhere else to go. He smiled, and bade her a formal welcome to Carleton University. Susan laughed, and clapped him on the shoulder. Apparently she was really touchy. Also, she was cuter up close. Way cuter. She opened up a webpage on the school site, went straight to Facebook and asked him if he was on. Next thing he knew, he was receiving a friend request from Susannah Abdullah. Upon reading what her last name was, Alexander raised a curious eyebrow. Susan grinned and told him that she was from Lebanon.

Alexander smiled at her. Wow. A Lebanese woman, eh? He heard a lot about them, of course. With so many Arabs living in the capital region of Canada, most young men from the various immigrant communities heard about the feisty and sexy Lebanese ladies. Whether Christian or Muslim, they were fiercely protected by the Lebanese guys, and coveted by everybody else. Alexander and Susannah chatted for a good half hour, and he learned more about her. She came from the Nabatieh area of Lebanon, and hailed from a Maronite family. She used to go to Saint Augustine Academy in Ottawa. So, she was a Christian. Cool. He proudly showed her his silver crucifix and she nodded, showing him her slightly different Lebanese cross. When he asked her about it, she told him that the Lebanese Christian community was among the oldest in all of Christendom. They'd been around for a long, long time. With a fierce gleam in her eyes, she told him that Christianity was here to stay among the Lebanese people, in spite of the efforts of the Arab League and the Muslim Brotherhood. Alexander nodded politely, sensing that this was something she cared about.

His phone vibrated, and he automatically picked it up, to click it off. Susannah eyed him, and smiled. Then she further surprised him by giving him her number. Alexander was quite surprised alright but he didn't hesitate. He punched Susannah Abdullah's number in his Blackberry and texted her right away, sending a quick hello her way. She smiled and told him she had to get to class in half hour, then she touched his shoulder again and thanked him for saving Medor, her mutt. Alexander smiled in what he hoped was a nonchalant way. At that precise moment, Victoria walked into the room, for once without her boyfriend Todd the jerk. She walked right up to Alexander, with a sour look on her face. Alexander knew that look. Victoria was having some sort of trouble, most likely guy related, and like so many people in Alexander's life, she only sought him out when she needed him. She moved for the seat near him, going on a rant about Todd kissing a Chinese chick, and then she noticed Susannah. The Haitian diva glared at the young Lebanese Christian woman, and something passed between them silently. Alexander hastily did a quick introduction, though he introduced Victoria to Susan as "someone he knows" as opposed to saying they were friends. Friends don't throw friends away for jerky racist boyfriends.

Susan looked Victoria up and down, then looked from her to Alexander. Her expression was carefully neutral, though her eyes were full of mischief. Smiling, Susan said that she was grabbing a quick bite, and Alexander asked if he could join her. The young Lebanese woman grinned broadly, and nodded. She waved at Victoria, said it was nice to meet her ( with admirable fake enthusiasm) and then walked out of the library with Alexander. The young Haitian man smiled. He could feel Victoria's eyes boring a hole into the back of his head but he didn't turn back to look at her. Nope, he wouldn't give her that satisfaction. Susan shot him a look, and said that Victoria seemed like she was having a rough day, and Alexander shrugged. Together, they went to the food court inside the university center. Alexander's day just kept getting better. Barely noon and he already met a gorgeous gal whom he added as a friend on Facebook, and she gave him her number. Life was good. Looking at Susan, Alexander told her he was glad he met her. She smiled brightly and told him the feeling was mutual.