Friends With A Black Guy

This is the real life story of how my friend Travis became an Internet sensation overnight. You may have seen his picture before.

Photo copyright José Taco Cruz, JTCPhotography

I attended a tiny Christian liberal arts university in Illinois - you may have heard of it. Located in Bourbonnais, right between Bradey and Kankakee (or, as I like to call it, Kankabourboley), Olivet Nazarene University is where I spent much of my early college career. It's a pretty campus, but one quickly realizes that between the spattering of college-sponsored Student Life events, non-academic life pretty much ends inside the ONU bubble. Not much happens, and there's no real fun to be had in the humdrum suburbs surrounding the school.

Enter my friend Travis. Travis is a great guy who majored in communications, got his degree, and is currently engaged to a wonderful young lady. He loves good fun and is always down for trying new things. He was also featured in The Olivetian - our school newsletter.

Oh, and he's black. But that's not really important, is it?

It was spring of 2012. Life was ONU peachy. Classes were going well, spring break was over, and midterms were all a thought of the past. Now it was all about having as much fun as we could before finals loomed on the horizon.

However, it was one evening in particular that the rumblings of shenanigans could be felt. I got word through a mutual friend that Travis was planning something, and it was going to be awesome. He had gotten the bright idea of setting up a table in the hub of our campus and putting up signs that said "Meet A Black Guy." He planned to pass out flyers and free food, utilizing as many "black" stereotypes as he appropriately could to ease racist tensions in my predominately white school. The idea gained speed among our friend group, and a few fateful Facebook messages later, it was decided. He had procured an appropriate table, I was printing the signs, and we were going shopping for food.

Before I knew it, we were heading to Kroger at midnight with Travis and a couple others. The discussion was filled with excitement.

The scene in the car was pretty comical, to say the least. Being black, Travis was the obvious mastermind present - that is, until he opened his mouth. "So guys. What do black people like?"

We all looked at each other.

"We've gotta get fried chicken!!" Travis pointed out.

We all agreed unanimously.

"What would be better, purple Kool-Aid or purple soda?"

Debate on that was a bit more involved, as we tossed stereotypes back and forth, arguing what black people liked better, Kool-Aid or soda. Ultimately though, we decided that canned purple soda and Dixie cups would be the easiest solution for handing "drank" out in small quantities.

And then the kicker. "WATERMELON!!!" We had to get a watermelon. Or two; even better!

Oh, and donuts and IBC root beer. Impulse buys - it was 2am at this point, and we were hungry.

Probably the most racist shopping trip ever

We got the stuff; everybody pitched in some cash. Cups, plates, fried chicken, purple soda, watermelons. The whole enchilada. The third-shift checkout lady was probably trying not to burst out laughing as Travis paid dutifully for his items. But she was able to keep a stern face, much to our amusement.

I laughed harder that night than I had in a long time. As soon as I got back to my dormitory, I got to work on his signs for the table.

Free Fried Chicken!
Free Purple Drank! (We had to put "drank" on there. It was too awesome.)
Free Hugs!
Free Pictures!
Free Signatures!
Free Watermelon!
Free Handshakes!

Heck, I still have the Word documents. I'll never delete them.

April 20, 2012. We got rolling that morning about 10am. Travis was cooking the fried chicken up, another friend was slicing up watermelon. I had a morning test, but I hustled the signs over right after. When I got there, we put the signs up, laid out the food, popped the sodas open and poured out the purple drank. Then we stepped back to survey the final effect.

Travis had done it. There was smooth jazz music playing, the table looked great, and he was standing behind everything, beaming like it was his holiday. It was amazing. People looked. Every student that walked past looked. FACULTY looked. People going in and out of the doors behind us loved what they saw. Some laughed as they went on their way; even more stopped to meet Travis and see what he was doing.

"Hello! I'm a black guy Nice to meet you."
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, just letting people know we're here."

 

But everyone - everyone - smiled. College kids stopped for pictures and free food. Grounds workers cruised up to grab a quick chicken wing. I popped a soda myself.

Several of our friends came to chill with the now most popular black guy on campus. His moment was wonderful.

Frank and Travis

Kitty, Travis, and Monica

Lynne and Travis

Our friend José snapped a photo with his DSLR and uploaded it to Flickr - unaware that it would soon become famous. It had over 80,000 views by the end of the day. Apparently his photo had made it onto Reddit; and the rest is mematic history.  Eventually, his picture would be seen on FunnyJunk, 4chan, Tumblr, and Formspring.

By 1pm the buzz had died down a bit, but spirits were still soaring. There were high fives all around; and to this day, it's one of the best memories I have.

TL;DR - Black people are awesome.