National Public Radio's "Tell Me More" is getting the tote-bag set's naughty bits tingling with yet another story about a white guy--an actual Caucasian--buying a $500 house in Detroit--the actual Motor City!
Check that, it's not really true that this is yet another $500 Detroit house story. Technically, it's the same story that Buzzfeed told last week. This time it was told on a non-commercial broadcast and focused as much on the homeowners whiteness as on the cost of the rundown house he's renovating.
NPR: HEADLEE: But this began with you working in a construction company where you were the only white guy, right?
PHILIP: That's correct. I was hired because it was an all-black construction company, as my boss told me, and I was hired because it was difficult for him to sell his jobs in the suburbs, which were mostly white. And he needed a, quote, a clean-cut white boy to help sell his jobs out in the suburbs because he couldn't do it. So I worked alongside everyone else sanding floors for I think $8.50 an hour. And then I also....
He made the same wage as his co-workers doing the same work! Now I really want someone to (ahem) tell me more...
HEADLEE: I got to stop you 'cause what was that like for you? This is not an experience that many Caucasians have. You were basically - and pardon the phrase - but you were basically the token white in that company. How did that make you feel?
PHILIP: In a sense, the people there made me feel very welcome. It was different because I was living in the city. I wasn't living in the suburbs. I lived near the people I worked with. So, you know, there were times when, you know, people would harass me a little bit, and they'd say, you know, cut it out. He lives right around the corner.
We're veering dangerously close to Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo singing "Ebony and Ivory" here.
These United States have not yet achieved the post-racial ideal of perfect social harmony. That's understood, but maybe we don't need to be so surprised when a white guy and a group of black guys can work together without incident in 2014?
