Speaking of black history month..

Today things got a little slow at the pharmacy around 8PM so the pharmacist on duty, Al, and me started talking about the past. As you guys may or may not know, Al is African American. He went to pharmacy school at the peak of racism and when anti-Black feelings were at their highest. He was a young adult in the 60s at the height of KKK and all that dirty business.

UT was racist against blacks at the time; they wouldn't even except African Americans into their pharmacy school then.

So Al went to TSU. And he became one of the first black pharmacists at his age.

And he told me the stories of first-hand racist acts against him and his people, yet today he is such a kind man.

I really gotta respect the man, because I know if a different race oppressed my race, I would not even be able to face them. I would be so full of anger and hatred, yet a man like Al serves the race that oppressed him for so long and helps them out so much.

But anyway, Al told me some great (but janky on his behalf) stories, like this one point in time where blacks weren't allowed to swim in pools designated for whites only - so Al and his friends would swim in the whites' pool at night and one time someone called the cops on him and they ended up draining and refilling the whole pool. Isn't that f'ed up?

It's just interesting to see how, of all animal species, this racism tends to only be apparent in humans.

Anyway, all of this is kind of ironic because it IS black history month. I learned me some firsthand history!!