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Happy Mother’s Day to all you fabulous moms out there.  I respect and admire your capacity to love and your devotion.  I know that there are exceptions but I am going to take a minute to focus what’s positive and typical.  Everyone loves their mom.  If you win an Oscar you thank your mom, if you get on the “Price is Right” you say “Hi Mom”, if you get arrested most of us will call mom.  Your mom is a constant throughout your life.  She’s been there through everything, even things you were too young to remember.  Moms are a real blessing.

I am so fortunate to have Lillie Mae Patrick French as my mom.  She’s a great lady.  No one has invested in me or believed in me the way she has.  My mom is a rock solid woman who’s word is as good as gold.  If she says something you can trust that it is true and that promises will be kept.  No on has ever stood up for me or protected me the way my mom has.

My mom is truly one of the nicest people in the world.  She is generous, not only with me but with other people too.  I am very blessed to be a witness to her life.  My mom has taught me to work hard, to stand up for myself, to be a lady, to be independent and to love God.  If I had to be born again and pick a mom again I would pick the same one.

I found out that Prince died on Thursday morning.  I was working in my restaurant and a customer told me the news.  I was absolutely shocked.  Prince hadn’t seemed to age in about fifteen years.  He seemed to be the picture of health to me.  Many people are thinking about retirement at age fifty seven but Prince seemed like a person that still had a lot of passion and things to accomplish.

I grew up listening to Prince’s music.  I remember when “1999” was a hit and it seemed so far off in the future.  I was eight or so.  I did the math and figured out that I would be twenty four in 1999.  I couldn’t even imagine myself at that age or what the future would be like.  Now I’m forty one and the year is 2016 and 1999 and being twenty four is a distant memory.

In the 1980s there was an urban legend that if you played a Prince record backward you would hear a satanic message.  I couldn’t resist giving it a try.  There was no message to be heard, just unintelligible words and ugly sounds.  I failed to summon the devil or any demonic spirits in my bedroom.  I can’t remember if I was relieved or disappointed.

“Purple Rain” was released when I was in the fourth grade.  I didn’t see the movie until many years later but I became familiar with it from my classmates.  They reenacted scenes from the movie on the playground and quoted the movie whenever they could work it into a conversation.  I do not remember when I actually saw the movie for myself but I thought it was awful.  The plot was weak and Prince was actually a terrible actor.  But the soundtrack was fantastic.  The movie was the star.

I remember when Prince decided to have a concert tour in the early 90s.  He came to the FOX theater in Detroit and I tried desperately to get tickets.  I think tickets went on sale at 10:00 a.m.  I arrived at the Harmony House at the local mall in the town where I lived at around 10:05 a.m. and the clerk told me that tickets were already sold out.  I was shocked but I was not going to be denied so easily.  I spent the rest of that day desperately trying to win tickets from the radio station.  I never got through so I gave up.

I’ve seen Prince in concert twice.  Both times it was in Kansas City, MO.  The first time I saw him at Municipal Auditorium downtown with a lady that I knew from my job at the time.  I wore a purple bobbed wig, a purple tank top and jeans.  I have a photograph of that ensemble somewhere but I haven’t taken the effort to locate it.  It was pretty sexy if I must say so myself.  Take my word for it.  The second time I saw him at Kemper Arena with my mom.

After missing out on the chance to see him in Detroit I jumped at the chance to buy tickets to a Prince show.  Both shows were fantastic.  He was a true musician and a purist.  His shows were simple.  His act didn’t involve magic tricks, pyrotechnics, or a dozen back up dancers.  I was just him and his incredibly talented band.

There is a Facebook meme that has been circulating that asks what your favorite Prince song is.  I was up until 3:00 a.m. Friday morning listening to his songs on my mp3 player.  I can’t decided.  I really can’t.  But I think I’m leaning toward “Raspberry Beret”.  I’ve always liked those lyrics.

I admire Prince’s creativity and passion.  He was incredibly accomplished and was ahead of his time.  He was 5’2″, wore high heels, ruffled shirts but had more masculine swagger than many, many men.  His music was sexy without being vulgar.  At least he wasn’t vulgar to me.  Prince seemed to be a man that loved, admired, respected and valued women and that makes the difference between sexy and vulgar.

Prince will be missed but we will have his music forever.  If the world survives another few centuries I wonder if his work will be among the ranks of Mozart, Beethoven or Tchaikovsky.  I hope so, his music is a sign of our times (pun intended).

“Life is just a party and parties weren’t meant to last.”

I have had several customer service jobs in my life.  My career has mostly consisted of working in retail and I have had restaurant jobs as well.  I have learned a lot about the human race while working as a public servant.  Some of it is good.  Some is just matter of fact.  Much of what I’ve learned is disappointing.

I am a Black woman and I’ve noticed that some customers treat me differently than my non Black counterparts.  I have had retail sales jobs where I greeted a customer and asked them if I can help them find anything.  They would coldly tell me that they were just looking and barely make eye contact.  A non Black store employee would approach them a minute later and the customer’s entire demeanor would change and they gladly let the non Black store associate assist them.  I have witnessed this scenario time and time again.

The world has a coldness and condescending attitude towards Blacks.  I have often felt that a lot of non Black people have a hard time interacting with Black people without trying to correct or dominate them in some way.  A lot of non Black people feel like it is their right to dominate any interaction with a Black person.  Sometimes they try to dominate through subtle hints which express disdain for the Black party and sometimes they are more aggressive.

I currently work as a server at a chain restaurant that is popular across the U.S.  I had a string of customers over the weekend that were very course and rude over the weekend.  Now I’m sure you’re saying all servers have dealt with rude customers and you would be right.  But I’ve been Black a long enough to know when I’m dealing with the passive aggressive “You ain’t shit nigger” type of rudeness which is pervasive throughout America.

These particular customers had harshness in their eyes and were very coarse with their words.  If I said something to clarify their order they would snap back in a snotty way in order to imply that I was stupid.  Some of them avoided eye contact all together when speaking and talked down into their plates.  They were very cold, distant, dismissive and rude.  This type of behavior is common in Missouri.  I’ve never thought that people here are very nice.

People love to find and excuse for racist behavior so I want to say that these particular customers had nasty attitudes as soon as I approached their table so I know it was nothing I did.  It was the way I looked that made them so hateful.  Some may tell me to just suck it up sister.  Believe me I have.  Sucking it up and toughing it out gets tiring.  So I’m writing about my experiences as a creative outlet and to let my voice be heard among the handful of people that read this blog. (Thank you)

I want to encourage any other Black public servants out there to keep your head up and be professional.  It’s not your problem my friend it’s theirs.  Keep working hard.  Don’t let the prejudice and hatred on someone else’s heart affect you in anyway.  Like Beyoncé said “Always be gracious your best revenge is your paper”.

I think that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States.  At least she is who I am supporting in this year’s presidential election.  I think the country is ready for a lady to be in the driver’s seat.  Or at least she will win because the other candidates are too extreme and frankly not convincing in their arguments.

I have always voted as a Democrat.  It’s not that I think that the Democrats are really all that honorable, accomplished or honest but as a working class, unmarried Black woman from the rust belt of the United States they speak to my interests more than the Republican party does.  With that being said none of the Republican candidates stand a chance at winning my vote.

I’ve never identified with the Republican point of view enough to vote for them but this current crop of Republicans is down right frightening.  The Republican front runner would not have even passed my high school speech class.  He probably would not have passed my high school composition class either based on his speech and illogical thought patterns.  His competitors for the Republic nomination are not much better than him.  They bicker back and forth like they are on a 1990s talk show.

The entire bunch of them is whiney, too sensitive and has the maturity of grade school children.  Even if they made valid points while spreading their political message, which they don’t, I couldn’t vote for them based on the way they conduct themselves.  I am not from a particularly affluent background nor do I make a great deal of money now but I have more class and intelligence than any one of the Republican hopefuls for the Presidency of the United States.  That’s pathetic.  I’m a forty one year old waitress for heaven’s sake.

I’m not terribly excited by the Democratic nominees either but they are far superior to what the Republicans managed to scrounge up.  Bernie Sanders is a popular candidate among the hipster crowd.  I like to think of myself as part of the hipster crowd.  I’m well educated, I’m a bit of a starving artist, I enjoy the occasion coffee shop or dive bar and what can I say I’m pretty darn hip.  But I’m not buying what Bernie Sanders is selling.  I’m probably too old to fall for his bribe of free college.

I’ve lived long enough to know that nothing is free; not anything, not ever.  Someone always has to pay.  So if Bernie Sanders wants to make college free who is going to pay for it and what will the trade off be?  Will Americans have to pay 75% income taxes or a federal 50% sales tax?  If a young or not so young person gets a college degree on the governments dime will he or she be required to serve in the military for a time?

I can only speculate because I have heard Bernie Sanders elaborate on how he plans on accomplishing his socialist version of America.  In that way he is much like the Republican front runner who plans on building a wall on the U.S., Mexican boarder and charge Mexico for the expense of building the wall.  I don’t know how he expects to make Mexico pay.

Some Bernie Sanders supporters think that Black Americans  owe Bernie Sanders our vote because he was active in the Civil Rights movement.  I respect what Senator Sanders did in the 1960s but I don’t feel like I owe him anything.  He stood up for what was right which I don’t think makes anyone a hero.  Besides that, there are thousands of Black people that were active in the Civil Rights movement that will be lost to history forever.  I don’t think many people would claim that their sacrifices should make them a presidential candidate.

I’m also very curious about Bernie Sanders position on Israel.  He was raised in a Jewish family but he does not practice that religion.  As a Christian person I am supportive of Israel and I think that America should support Israel as well.  If Bernie Sanders does not support Israel that would be very weird to me.  His family was killed by Nazis in Poland.  If he isn’t supportive of Israel that would make him the Stacey Dash of the Jews.  And I can’t support that.  I’m bothered that he hasn’t been more outspoken on his views on the Israelis Palestinian conflict.

That leaves Hillary Clinton.  Clinton has her critics that say that she is untrustworthy because some of her campaign contributors are Wall Street companies like Goldman Sachs.  I agree that that is suspicious.  Once again nothing is free and those companies will be expecting favors from our new president because nothing is free after all.

There are a lot of people on social media that say Black Americans should not vote for Hillary Clinton because the mass incarcerations of Black men started under the Clinton’s.  I’m not sure if that is true or not but what I want to know is where have these critics been.  Hillary Clinton became first lady in the 1990s.  After that she represented the state of New York in the Senate.  After that she was Secretary of State.  But all these Black activists wait until about two months ago to discuss her husband’s involvement in the unfair treatment that Black men have received from the U.S. justice system.  Where the heck have they been?  Once again, I’m not buying what the Hillary detractors are selling.  Congress makes laws not the president.

So the United States will probably have another history making election this November just like we did in 2008.  I think we are on the verge of electing our first woman for president.  It’s not that we are really all that enthusiastic about electing a woman just like most of the country was not excited about electing a mixed race, Black looking man a president.  We settled on the only candidate available that was not an morally bankrupt fool.  It’s a shame that this is what American politics has come to.

Fortunately, Barak Obama was a great president and he did a lot for all Americans.  I will miss him and his wife terribly.  I may even cry when they leave the White House.  I believe that Hillary will do her best to serve America to the best of her ability.  I believe her ability is great.  As far as her character is concerned, I’m sure she is a little shady.  There’s no way you can be involved in politics as long as she has and not be a little jaded.  But I trust her more than I do any other candidate.  And it will be a bit of poetic justice to watch Donald Trump lose a presidential election to a woman.