“Living in Detroit and being known as “Whitey” in the ghetto, that was kind of cute. I borrowed the teenager’s bicycle once to go down to the store to get some milk and lettuce and something for dinner. I did not have a bicycle lock so I parked the bicycle in the front entrance way of the store where I could see it. And while I’m at the checkout doing a transaction that took all of two minutes, two young hooligans stole my home-stay brother’s bicycle. I can’t let that happen. I didn’t think of what context I’m in, that I’m the only white person in four square miles of inner city Detroit. I was a track runner so I go running down the street full tilt after these kids on the boy’s new bike and yanked them off the bicycle and said, “You can’t do that! That’s not yours!” And there’s a whole bunch of people watching whitey do this. And I’m thinking to myself, “I’m going to get killed. “ Nobody touched me and for that I thanked providence.
Chapter 6: WILLIAMS-AT-HOME
- 1. If This Is Not Going To Be Discussed . . . I Withdraw the Proposal
- 2. One Anarchist, Two Evangelicals
- 3. Are You Going to Live Down in the Swamps?
- 4. In Georgia: Stolen Clothes and ‘Naners
- 5. Jim Lands in the Pokey
- 6. More Lessons in Black and White
- 7. Neikirk Eyes a Girl, She Eyes His Soul
- 8. The Texas Pose
- 9. On to Appalachia, Food Stamps and Birthing a Calf
- 10. This Is Classic
- 11. In Iowa: Castrations and Ice Cream
- 12. Detroit: “Casper” On the Assembly Line
- 13. Why Not Just Enlist in the Army?