Shaking your tail feather with white folks in a burning house.

“I fear, I am integrating my people into a burning house.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr


Dr. King said the above statement to Harry Belafonte in a conversation they had before his death. Belafonte startled at the statement said to him “What should we do?” Dr. King told him that we “Become the firemen, Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”

On the flip side of that, you have a speech by Malcolm X. It was entitled “The House Negro and the Field Negro.” He spoke about how the House Negro loved the Master more than he loved himself. And that if the Masters house caught on fire, the House Negro would try to put the fire out. On the other hand you have the Field Negro. The Field Negro hated the master and despised his very existence. If the Master’s house were to catch on fire, the Field Negro would pray for a strong wind to come along.

Here you have two black thoughts that are on opposite sides of the spectrum. The feelings are as true today as they were when both these statements were proclaimed in the mid 60’s.


Urban Fiction author Teri Woods is suing a nightclub called Greenhouse for $1 Billion Dollars due to a claim of racism. Apparently she arranged a party at this club in the New York City section of SoHo to celebrate her new book. The lawsuit claims that her guests were denied entrance into the club because of their race. There are also text messages from the doorman to the club owner expressing a need to keep people out based on appearances. One text read “I couldn’t let in 300lb girls.” How she got a hold of text messages from the doorman to the club owner is still hazy to me. Woods was planning on doing it up big time at the club with her 175person guest list. But it turned into a night of disappointment for the New York Times best selling author. When she rolled up to the club she saw her black guests standing outside, while her white guests were let in. One of the plaintiffs in the case, Kashan Robinson, was listed as being the sister to rapper Queen Pen. Errrrrrrrrrrr….pump the breaks. Yes!! You heard me. This was actually listed on BlackVoices.com website. Someone actually took the time to research that tidbit of insignificant information. I hope Ms. Robinson wasn’t at the club yelling that in order to get in. That would be the equivalent of me saying I’m related to Father MC in order to get into a party. I’m not related to him but you get the point.


What makes this interesting is that some of the comments to the story were mixed. Many comments were in favor of Woods suing the club and others blamed Woods for the incident. The comments blaming Woods expressed the sentiment that black folks shouldn’t be chasing after white folks approval. And if we want to enjoy ourselves, we should support our own clubs or better yet build them. I remember black owned clubs I use to frequent back in the day. Places that weren’t very well lit and had only one entrance. It could only have been God that kept me alive when I went to those places. Some of the shadiest characters in America can be found in those clubs. I hate to racially profile folks but even Helen Keller would know a Thug if she could see one. Not all black owned clubs are death traps. You have real nice ones that are perfectly safe to frequent. But even in cities where blacks have large numbers, we don’t have ownership in half of the clubs.


For all that have been paying attention to our current situation - *News Flash*. Black folks, we have already been integrated into a burning house. The house was on fire when they started busing black children to white schools and it has been burning brightly ever since. It’s too late to go back now homie!!! People should be allowed to attend any club that they want to. We can’t be mad at other blacks because they want to party uptown. Now if Woods went to a Klan picnic there would be a problem. It’s all about freedom of choice folks. I personally don’t hang out that often so I don’t get turned away from clubs. Most of the time when I go to a club I know that I’m getting in. But things might be a tad bit different in New York.


Is this a common occurrence in major metropolitan cities? Have you ever been turned away from a club because of racism? I’m just asking………