Black Out

Besides writing poems to add my thoughts and feelings to the mix I like to write short stories, and in a way, I really tend to like stories that have some light messaging in them in the way of Dr. Seuss or Aesop's Fables. The story below is called "Black Out", which is a flash fiction work that is my effort in trying to speak reason into madness. This story is really in line with the Dr. Seuss story "The Sneetches" and really shares the wisdom behind MLK whose messaging today is no longer correct today in the inclusive Woke Crowd that is really exclusive like "The Sneetches" themselves.

[In the future, Cultural Appropriation will be replaced with Cultural Harvesting, and you be turning Japanese or anything you wish!]

"Tom, there's no way you will be able to work for the H.V.C. now as H.R. is saying that it has reached its limit of white devils. The limit is 9% this year; they will hire."

"That's what you think, Jack. I have had enough of this crap, so I am going to black myself out."

"Don't tell me it has come to this. Please don't do it, Tom. Have you lost every last bit of sense."

"Just shut the hell up Jack, and, start calling me Jabari. That's the new name that I have picked out with my new color. It means - He is brave - and so I am to partake on this venture."

[TWO WEEKS LATER AT H.V.C. INDUSTRIES]

"I am here about the job. Do you need to check my resume? My name is Jabari."

"No.," a black woman told him at the front desk. "We have you on file."

"I was surprised how easy it was to get hired here," Jabari said.

"With the white man hiring freeze, I don't know how many whites are going to be able to find jobs." The black woman laughed.

"Right, those fools," replied Jabari.

"Hey, are you the new guy? My name is Sammy," said this very polished black man with a bright purple tie. He looked Jabari over. "I've been looking all over for you."

"What do you need?"

"We got a crisis. The CEO died last night. They say it was in a yacht accident, and now the company has been taken over in a hostile takeover by black investors."

"That's crazy!" Jabari couldn't stop himself from shouting out. "But why so upset, man?"

"Something is not right. I can't put my finger on it, yet I know something is not as it seems here."

Just then, another black man stormed into the lobby. "Sammy, why are you standing around? I told you my father had big plans for your little company here."

"Little?" Sammy questioned.

"20/20 Hindsight Corp. has a way to see around every corner." This black man said before rushing out of the lobby.

Jabari called out to him, "I didn't catch your name."

"No, you didn't. I'm Zaci."

"I thought the leadership at 20/20 Hindsight Corp. was all white devils. In another lifetime, I think I knew the son of the CEO there. He was a man by the named Jack Farmer."

"I'm sorry, my friend Jabari, that company has seen the light of day and has forever been blacked out."

"Blacked out? You don't say." Jabari turned to see Zaci's smiling eyes wondering if his old friend was somewhere in there, "Jack? Is that you?"

Sammy gave Zaci a double take and then looked over to the black woman at the desk to see if she was listening to the conversation unfolding, and she had been from the look of her. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"It's not personal," Zaci said. "It's just business, and in business, one must do whatever one must do to survive and adapt to one's environment."

[AS THE YEARS ADVANCED ALL THE SPECIAL PEOPLE – EVERYONE WHO WAS ANYONE HAD BLACK THEMSELVES OUT – only by the turn of the next generation, the teenagers of their time couldn't help to rebel against their parents and grandparents and entered into the process to be forever known as the WHITE OUT.]

"Jenny, what have you done with yourself? Have you gone crazy? If you can't tell you are white, girl."

"This is all the rage, and my parents hate it, which makes my decision that much sweeter. I was going to go two shades lighter, but I ran out of credits. You should try it."

"No thanks, I like to have some color on my face. Looking so pale makes you look ill. This sort of thing will never catch on."

[But catch on it did, and soon the trend began to get whiter and whiter. Because all the white elites went BLACKOUT long ago, there was no way to know who identified as black to survive and who was born black, and soon people were treating themselves to DNA splicing. Native American, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese were really turning Japanese and it wasn't just thinking so. Towards the end of the twenty-first century, the whole populous wasn't only identifying as pretty much anything under the sun. They were able to also become anything they desire for bargain prices and change it up like getting a new haircut. Men became women for a weekend. Suppose you wanted to be blue or green for a couple of years in college, no problem. Like a chameleon, it was possible to adapt to any likely cultures. In fact the most popular fade was entering into a culture that was 100% fictional.]