Sometimes, the toughest obstacle in the black man's path to success isn't the white man, it's a negative black female. How else would you explain my situation at work? My name is Alexandre Vincent. All my life, I've been the good brother. The hard-working, law-abiding and church-going on you seldom hear about. I'm a firm believer in higher education as perhaps the best ( if not the only ) way for the forward-thinking brother to move forward in western society. Brothers should stop trying to be rappers and athletes and instead get with the program and stick with education. The world would be better off, don't you think?
My parents, Louis and Genevieve Vincent are Haitian immigrants who came to Ontario, Canada, in the early 1980s. They instilled in me a lot of ambition and drive. And it totally worked. Let's look at the results for a moment, shall we? Bachelor's degree in Criminology from Carleton University, and Law degree from the University of Toronto. Not bad for a twenty-seven-year-old black man living in Canada, eh? I started working for the Law firm of Harrington, Tremblay and Rahman in August 2012. One of the top criminal defense firms in Toronto, Ontario, it was founded in 1990 by three law school buddies.
The Law firm has an interesting history. A pair of distinguished white Canadian lawyers, Lucas Harrington and Jean Pierre Tremblay, joined forces with their old pal Abdul Rahman, a Somali immigrant who once made headlines as President of the Law Review at McGill University. Together they founded the firm, and it's been booming ever since. I'm one of the forty three attorneys working for them. They have offices in Ottawa, Hamilton, Montreal and Quebec City, and they're thinking about expending into Calgary. How cool is that?
I was fortunate enough that when I first got hired by the firm, the only black senior partner, Mr. Abdul Rahman, took me under his wing. Even though Mr. Rahman is Somali and a card-carrying Muslim and I'm a Haitian-Canadian Catholic, we totally bonded. The old man taught me much about how to practice law as a black man in Canada's biggest and most racially diverse metropolis, and about life. In many ways, he became the mentor I long sought but never had. I looked up to him, man. I really did. No matter how educated you are, you can't know the unwritten rules of the game until an old pro teaches them to you. Sometimes, what makes or breaks a case for the attorney assigned to it has nothing to do with their knowledge of the law. How you dress, who you know, and how you are seen by the opposition, the jury and the judge himself, all those things matter. Juries don't side with the truth or the law, they side with the victims ( or defendants ) and the attorneys they happen to like. How else would you explain how a clearly guilty racist punk like George Zimmerman is ( for now ) still free while OJ Simpson is in jail?
Yeah, the good Mr. Rahman taught me all these things. He hooked up with this awesome Lebanese tailor, Marcus Suleiman, who got me a whole new line of fancy suits for just about every occasion. While other rookie attorneys at the firm did the backbreaking work of combing through files for the big bosses upstairs, Mr. Rahman showed me the beauty of Toronto and gave me priceless tips. The man is truly beneficent. Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on his daughter. Remember, at the start of the story, I said that a tough obstacle often found in the black man's path to success is the negative black female? I was referring of course to Yasmina Rahman, Mr. Abdul's daughter.
When the esteemed Mr. Abdul Rahman left the Toronto branch of the firm to look into opening a new one in Calgary, there was a power vacuum which his daughter, thirty-year-old hotshot attorney Yasmina Rahman stepped in to fill. Ever heard the term rain maker? That's the seemingly invincible young attorney who's raking in victory after victory in the courtroom. Miss Yasmina Rahman has the distinction of being the firm's only rainmaker. You see, she's tried thirty three cases in her career...and she hasn't lost a single one. Considering she's a black woman attorney in a racist place like Toronto ( don't let the multicultural bullshit fool you, Canada's largest and most racially diverse metropolitan area is full of bigots ) that's doubly impressive.
Now, when I heard that my former boss daughter was going to be my new boss, I was quietly thrilled. Talent runs in the family, I thought as I looked at Yasmina Rahman's picture on the company database. I'm still a rookie but after winning six out of six cases I'd been assigned, I was rising in the ranks. My only rival was Liam Bosworth, this red-haired white dude from Kingston, Ontario, who joined the firm six months before I did. Like all the white guys at work, all he seems to do is smoke cigars, ski and talk hockey, and he's surprised that I'm outpacing him when it comes to actual work. Another reason I dislike him is that he's a University of Ottawa Law school grad, and as a Carleton University graduate, I cannot stand the breed. Our schools have been rivals in academia and athletics for decades...
Anyhow, I showed up at work bright and early Monday morning, only to find Yasmina Rahman in my little office. Dressed in a stylish dark gray business suit, white blouse and dark gray silk pants, the tall Somali lady looked pretty good. Her long black hair cascaded on her shoulders. I love Somali women's natural hair. More sisters should go that way. Hello Vince, Yasmina Rahman said, her big brown eyes wide and unfriendly. Miss Rahman I don't believe we've met, I said, smiling warmly at her and extending my hand for her to shake.
After an uncomfortable span of time, Yasmina Rahman finally shook my hand. You now work for me and I've got work for you, she said, dropping a thick file on my desk. I looked at the file, then cleared my throat before opening my mouth to ask her for further details but she was already walking out of my office. I stood there, feeling irked by the way she disrespected me. Yet I couldn't help staring at her thick ass as she waltzed out of my office, practically sashaying that ass from side to side like a pendulum of temptation. What is it with them Somali women and their mesmerizing asses? Hot damn. Yasmina Rahman is definitely a stuck-up bitch and I knew that, from that day onward, I've had to be careful around her. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about that ass...