i had an acquaintance in high school; his name was rob blackman. he was a black male, as his name would imply. not a friend, really, but a friend of a friend of a friend. still, i ate lunch with him every day for five years.

there were never more than five people of african descent at this school at any given time. it was a catholic school in a largely italian neighbourhood of ottawa. keeping in mind that almost all afrrican-canadians can trace their history in canada to after 1970, the number of black catholics in ontario is relatively low, and i believe mostly of caribbean descent. this particular school drew mostly from the italians and poles of the surrounding area and the irish and scots of a wealthy suburb, called barrhaven. canada does not have a very large spanish-speaking population, either. the reason we have publicly funded catholic schools has to do with our large french minority, which is largely invisible in ontario.

rob was actually an incredibly passive guy. he was very quiet. he kept to himself. and, we had to pressure him for quite a while before he finally agreed to smoke some pot with us; he didn't like it much. i do not think he excelled academically, but it wasn't due to any clear level of delinquency. i don't know what happened to him.

despite these traits, the teachers tended to pick on him. i used to listen to him grapple with this: he really didn't get it. but, then, one day he did. he'd been sent to detention for something he didn't do, and wasn't sure anybody even did at all. and, he said it, sure of himself, finally:

"it's because i'm black."

this was actually met with the roar of pubescent male laughter, tickled by the absurd surreality of the situation, for we all very well knew it was true, and perhaps a good deal of time before rob, himself, did. and, what can a bunch of kids do in the face of absurdity but laugh?

and, laugh we did.

for, now every problem in the world was reduced to the fact that rob was black.

"shit. it's raining. have to stay in."
"...it's because rob is black."

this was a wonderful joke for, in fact, many years - and rob did not just laugh along, but often offered the punchline, himself.

i get it.

i'm not doing it, though.