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.

Lent and Withdrawls

Think of this post as a quick muse/devotional thought.

In my quest for the truth (mainly starting this new year), I've been doing some more digging in the Word and just spending time actually paying attention to God. He's always there, you know... and even though you know He knows your thoughts, sometimes it's just helpful knowing you can talk to Him about crap, ya know?

I love properly used memes. This one's a little off par, but it will do.

Enter February. Now, every year around this time, there's a little (err... not so little) day called Fat Tuesday. Everybody loves Fat Tuesday, because Fat Tuesday is fun to say, makes people giggle, and basically gives the impression that you can/should eat and do whatever you want. Basically, it is the YOLO mindset (I freaking hate that word). What people don't really think so much about is the day which follows. The day after Fat Tuesday is Wednesday. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

Lent is defined by Wikipedia as a Christian observance meant to prepare the believer; it is a form of fasting. While the main denominations that faithfully observe this are Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Anglicans, most Christians at least know about the concept of Lent. Mention Lent to almost anyone and they'll look at you and say "Oh, are you Catholic?" No, I'm not Catholic. I just happen to care about my walk with God.

Here is a spattering of the top things people gave up for Lent in 2009. Interesting stuff.

Traditionally, Christians who practice Lent give up something for the forty-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter to better focus on striving towards holiness in life. Now, in the past, I've given up soda pop (and am currently) for Lent, but never really thought much about it. I would do it mainly for the challenge, if you will... the "thrill of accomplishment" -- and go right back to gorging myself with Mountain Dew as soon as Lent was over, gloating at my abilities in self denial. But soda pop isn't that dear to me. Yes, I shamefully love my Mountain Dew (you can buy it for me here at a ridiculous price), but it's not like I can't live without it.

So this year, I wanted to take things a little more seriously when it came to personal sacrifice for Lent. But what? There's nothing I really do that I can give up... my life is pretty boring, right?

Oh no. HELL NO. Nononononooo...

You might laugh at me. Feel free; I felt pretty pathetic in hindsight. Facebook isn't everything; but hey, it's pretty huge. But then again, you might not hold Facebook at the same esteem that I do. Facebook is a ridiculously integral part of my life, and has been for the past five years. It's my main source of information, and by far my foremost means of staying connected with some of the closest people in my life who pretty much all live as inconveniently far away from me as possible. If I am online, I pop Facebook into its own happy little tab and surf the Internet, peeking up at Facebook's tab every now and then to see if a little (1) appears next to the tab name (meaning I have a notification). Or better yet, hearing that multi-emotional "pling" (depending on the nature of your conversation) that means someone else on Facebook cares enough to chat with you. I love Facebook -- maybe too much. But give it up for forty days? Craziness!
 

Oh, shut up.

Yet here I am. Six days into this suddenly meaningful journey called Lent, and I haven't been on Facebook once. At first I missed my Facebook tab... but now I'm used to it being gone. It feels like it's been a longer time than six days, but in all reality, this is probably one of the longest stretches I've gone without it. I will say it is rather unsettling to be without a security you've felt pretty much every day for five years. Yet, at the same time, it's very freeing. I have more time to do things, and I've been far more productive even when using the Internet. Was Facebook that large of a distraction for me? Apparently so.

So no Facebook or soda. For the first few days, I was very irritable. Think of a room full of girls with PMS (keep in mind, I have five sisters. Nothing shocks me anymore). I was that pissy. But as time has passed, my mood has improved, and I've started thinking more about why I am sacrificing these things. What do I prioritize more-- Facebook or my time spent with God? More times than not, I waste hours on Facebook and don't even think about God. Just six days into Lent, I am thinking more about God and how I am living than I have for the past month.

So be encouraged. I know I am. And hey, only thirty-four days to go for this boy. If Jesus could handle it, and He empowers us to do even greater things, then how can we fail?

I plan to post after Lent on how I feel about everything. It will be interesting to see if/how my perspectives have changed.


**this boy now gets his caffeine from coffee**

- Knolster