The first class I took during Summer Session I was World Civilization I. The instructor was an attorney from Paterson I’ll call Ronnie. I’ll call him Ronnie since he often referred to himself in the third person as “Ronnie”. He sort of had this “Supafly Soul Brotha” vibe to him. He had relaxed hair, and wore a ginormous shiny gold chain around his neck. I swear sometimes I think I saw him take off a crushed velvet hat with a peacock feather in it before class.
He often spoke of attending SUNY New Paltz with Bill O’ Reilly back in the day. He was a great professor. He was thoroughly engaged in the subject matter and I loved talking with him after class about class and race and culture.
The last day of class, I showed up wearing makeup, with my hair styled wearing a dress. No, not to curry favor, but I had a job interview immediately after class. He took notice. When I showed up a few weeks later to collect my final paper on Neolithic women entitled, “She’s a Brick House” he whispered in my ear how much he wanted to comment on my appearance but felt it would be inappropriate to do. There is something intoxicatingly powerful about a fat white chick in a clingy dress to a black man.
