{"id":599,"date":"2025-07-25T16:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=599"},"modified":"2025-07-25T16:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:27:56","slug":"the-ghost-in-the-mulch-pile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=599","title":{"rendered":"The Ghost in the Mulch Pile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Originally written August 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This weekend I had an \u201cah-ha\u201d moment\u2014one of those realizations that many Black people may already know deep down, but I hadn\u2019t fully connected the dots until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now have irrefutable proof that Black people are invisible<\/em> to white people. Or worse\u2014we\u2019re ghosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve lived in my neighborhood for almost 24 years. There are about six or seven families of every race who\u2019ve been here just as long. But like most neighborhoods in Evanston, it\u2019s becoming less and less diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday morning, my wife and I were headed to Menards (Home Depot lost my business, but that\u2019s another story) to grab materials for our front and backyard project. On the way, we stopped to chat with some longtime neighbors who were also out working in their yards. One of them mentioned they\u2019d had a truckload of mulch delivered\u2014and told us not to buy any because there was plenty to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that afternoon, I walked down the block with my wheelbarrow to the mulch pile. The same neighbor who invited us was there, along with two other moms who were already shoveling and filling up their carts and wagons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not once did they acknowledge my presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I didn\u2019t think much of it. It wasn\u2019t until Sunday that the moment fully landed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my second trip to the mulch pile, I decided to speak\u2014introducing myself. And there it was. That look. I\u2019ve seen it hundreds of times but never quite had the words for it. It\u2019s the look of someone hearing a voice they didn\u2019t expect, followed by that split-second where you suddenly<\/em> become visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It only lasts a moment, but it\u2019s unmistakable. The startled eyes. The slight jolt. Then the word that always comes next: \u201cOh.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that moment of becoming visible, there\u2019s also a flash of fear. Sometimes it passes quickly. Other times it lingers (see: Amy Cooper). And sometimes it calcifies into something much worse (see: Derek Chauvin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the young moms recovered, smiled, and introduced themselves. We talked about the neighborhood, swapped the usual pleasantries. Once you\u2019re visible\u2014truly visible<\/em>\u2014most people relax. You become familiar, no longer an aberration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But later, I returned to the same mulch pile. A man had joined the effort. I was still the only Black man there. Once again, I initiated the introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same look. Same startled pause.
Same word: \u201cOh.\u201d
Same return to business as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d think invisibility would be an awesome superpower. Top two, maybe, right behind flying. But when you\u2019re Black\u2014invisibility isn\u2019t power. It\u2019s danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because when you materialize<\/em>\u2014when white folks finally notice you\u2014some get scared. And fear in this country, in the presence of Blackness, can be deadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re like ghosts. People have been taught to fear us before they even see us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s be honest\u2014what color was the only friendly<\/em> ghost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent, senseless deaths of Black people have made us more visible in the headlines. But as I found out this weekend, in the day-to-day lives of some folks\u2014we\u2019re still completely invisible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally written August 2022 This weekend I had an \u201cah-ha\u201d moment\u2014one of those realizations that many Black people may already know deep down, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13,10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blackness","category-evanston","category-life","category-race"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}