My name is Joe Strides. I'm a stocky, dark-skinned young Black man living in the City of Champions, Massachusetts. I work at the Champion City Community Library. And I'm the laziest bastard you'll ever meet. A fine example of the stereotypically unmotivated African-American guy. Even though being born in the United States of America grants me advantages that immigrants from foreign lands can only dream of, I refuse to make the most of myself. Rather than pursue college or other worthwhile endeavors, I waste my time by working for my town's library. Maybe ambition is simply not in my DNA. I'm just lazy. Yeah. I guess that's it. Whatever.
If there's one thing I don't like it's other Black people who are actually trying to get ahead. Like some Black writers in my community. Not content to sell their stuff online and in some bookstores, they're actually trying to get their works on the shelves. And I can't stand this display of Black creativity and ambition. That's why I ignore their requests for help. Watching other Black people succeed usually makes me feel bad about myself. So I get in their way every bloody chance I get. While I dislike ambitious Blacks I know, I simply love White folks. Whenever one of them asks me to do something at the library, I say yes and do it happily. Why? Simply because I'm naturally agreeable to whatever requests they make of me. I'm just a happy-go-lucky African-American guy who loves to make White people happy.
And I'm not the only modern-day person of color with such a disposition. Take my Cape Verdean co-worker Mary Velasquez for example. This tall, light-skinned, pretty-faced and big-bottomed woman from Cape Verde is a chip off the old block. Whenever light-skinned Black people ( especially those from Cape Verde) and White people come to the library, they get priority service over dark-skinned people. That's the way my co-worker Mary Velasquez operates. To be honest, I don't have a problem with that. Like me, Mary Velasquez secretly gets off on being bossed around by White people. Especially White women. Like our supervisor Lydia Shenandoah, a red-haired White woman in her early fifties. She's bossy as hell and deeply racist. She hides it well, though. Mary and I are really fond of her authoritarian ways.