Each “Foto Friday” 2dopesistahs pay homage to our love of Pinterest by remixing one of the posts we saw there, the “30 Day Photo Challenge,” originally posted on the Little Bennet blog. This week’s topic is “Someone You Love,” but we were unable to persuade those we love the most to participate. Instead, we decided to make one last dedication to Jesse, our dearly departed friend, and our friendship with him.
Day 9: Someone You Love
Da Realist 1: Friends
The Hermitage, The plantation home of President Andrew Jackson
In my experience, there is something interesting that happens when black people visit an historical plantation site. We become objects of curiosity. This is what happened in November 2010 when Da Hype 1, Jesse, and I went to visit “The Hermitage,” the plantation and home of Pres. Andrew Jackson. You may ask, why would I want to visit such a place? I’m a historian, and I find these kinds of things interesting. I’m not quite sure how I convinced my friends to go, but they indulged me.
As I predicted, the Hermitage employees and the other visitors appeared to find our presence curious and disruptive. We were the only black people there. And the looks that we kept getting seemed to ask, “What are you doing here?”
- Nerdy “Treacherous 3” at the Hermitage
As we were waiting for the horse-drawn wagon tour of the plantation grounds to start, a man approached us and asked if we were the ones driving the wagon. What the. . . ? Now all of the employees/volunteers were wearing either period costumes or matching shirts and aprons. We, of course, looked at him real crazy and told him no. Did he think we were playing the part of slaves? Or, maybe he could only rationalize our presence there as employees, not as actual visitors to a plantation. It was more comedic than offensive. How many times have you wanted to tell someone off when he offended you? Well, Jesse followed that man into one of the cabins on the grounds and told him, “You’re stupid” right to his face. Classic. What awesome friends I have! Love ya, Jesse! Love ya, Hype 1!
2 Dope Sistahs 
I think I would have really liked Jesse. I once had a similar experience at Beauvior, Jefferson Davis’ retirement home in Gulfport, MS. My white friend could not understand why I was extremely reluctant to give my hard earned dollars to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. She also could not understand why I refused to smile and pose for pictures on the front porch as if black folks had such a good time working for the Davis family.
You definitely would have liked him. He loved to laugh, and we got a lot of comedy out that experience.