Chapter 3 The Superhero
The Superhero
In the sixth grade, I had a racist
teacher, Mr. Rogers. He treated me
horribly. There was one student who
continued to say racist things in class. Everyone laughed. Mr. Rogers defended him. Being the only black kid in class, it inevitably
turned into a fist fight. It was the
first time I was ever punched but I kicked his butt. Literally.
I knocked him down. He was on all
fours with his behind facing me and I kicked it like I was trying to make a
field goal. Word got back to my father,
and I explained what was happening with this teacher. The next day, without telling me, he shows
up. I remember him walking down the
halls. All these kids, thought, he was
some sort of god passing them but I saw the infamous Allen scowl. My Dad is able to configure his face in such
a way to express pure rage. To this day, it still scares the hell out of me. It was like a mask he put on to transform
into something else. Tall and dark and glistening, he went to my teacher and
told him he needed to talk to him. They
had an impromptu teacher’s conference.
For the rest of the year, I was Mr. Roger’s favorite student.
That’s the way it has been for me
and my brother our entire lives. Someone
messes with us. We throw up the Bat
signal. He shows up with the Allen scowl
and handles it. He is not much of a
diplomat when it comes to these altercations. When my brother was in fifth
grade, one of his football coaches put him at noseguard (Tremayne was supposed
to be a running back) against the biggest kid on the other team. They had to
hold my dad back from ending this coach’s life.
As he was pulled away, he kicked one of those huge iron fifty-gallon
trash cans. Fifteen years later, I heard
that trash can still remained with a dent in it that looked like someone took
an anvil to it.
Teachers, neighbors, strangers,
coaches. White, black, rich or
poor. It didn’t matter. You didn’t mess with Aubrey’s boys. I have so
many stories that I can recount. I remember one time, in high school, he didn’t
like the way the basketball coach was talking to me during the games. He sent my brother to the coach demanding a
meeting. After the game, my Dad goes into
the coaches office with the Allen scowl. The basketball coach got two other
coaches for back up. They stayed in there
for almost an hour. I don’t know what
was said, but the coach never talked to me in that way again. I learned that this was my nuclear
option. When I flashed the signal, my
dad was coming. So, sometimes, I had to keep things from him because I knew he
would scorch the earth to defend me.
My favorite
time my Dad saved me is after I graduated from college. I hadn’t used the bat signal in four years. I didn’t need it and handled any issues on my
own. I had a successful basketball career at a small college. I was pretty much
the face of my basketball team. I
inherited the legacy of playing center where the big man has always been the
focus and star. Everyone on campus, in the faculty, in administration knew who
I was, including a certain director of residential living. The school was expanding and building off
campus apartments. I lived in one my
senior year. They were brand new and
when I moved in, there was some type of tank that looked like propane. I did not know what it was and didn’t think
it was serious. Since no one used that
closet, I forgot about it. However, this
resident director was on a campaign to keep athletes from living in off campus
apartments. I don’t know if he was
bullied by a jock when he was younger, but it was obvious he held a vendetta
and being the most recognized athlete on campus, he was going to make me his
scapegoat. About six months after I graduated, I get a call from one of the
coaches telling me that this guy used me as an example in an email as to why
athletes should not live off campus. He
said they found a freon tank in a closet in my apartment which can be used as
some sort of hallucinogen. He accused me
of inhaling the toxins from that tank. He thought he was simply using me as evidence
in an argument but for me, he was trying to destroy the legacy I built at that
school in my three years. I immediately
drove to his office and started yelling at this man. When I saw I wasn’t getting anywhere. I said seven words. I am going to call my
Dad. I guess it sounded a little infantile
saying that, like I was a little baby needing “Daddy’s help”. He didn’t
seem impressed or scared. For a second,
I felt sorry for him. I thought, “You
dumb idiot. You have no idea the
hellfire I am about to rain on you.”
I put up
the bat signal. Dad told me to tell the coach that he wants to meet with them
in a conference room on campus. He wants
the president of the school, the vice president, the provost, the head coach,
the foreman, and the person who made the accusation. When I got the date of the meeting, he told
me to put on my best suit and for me and mom to meet him in the parking lot
outside of the building. When I saw him,
he glistened. He was wearing a suit as
well and we walked in that place as this beautiful black family. No one expected
that and were immediately knocked off guard as they wore T-shirts and polos and
sandals and sneakers. We were led to a
conference room. There were about ten
people there (some people I had never seen before). Everyone my dad asked for, except the
president, attended. He requested they
all sit at one side of the table and our family on the other. We sat in three chairs opposite the ten
others with my Dad in the middle between me and my mom. Everyone sat down. My dad pulled out reading glasses and put
them on. He pulled out a pen and neatly placed
it on the table above the legal pad he brought with him. Lastly, he pulled out
a tape recorder and placed it a little further from him so that it could catch
everyone’s voice in the room.
I wish
there was something I could compare it to. Not Perry Mason or Matlock or anything I have
ever seen on Law and Order. He interrogated
everyone in the room. He started gently but the intensity began to rise as he
went from person to person, occasionally flashing the infamous Allen scowl. At one point, I started to speak and defend
myself and he waived his hand like he was Obi Wan Kenobi. I stopped in mid-sentence. That probably scared everyone more than
anything. They watched me dunk on my
opponents with my own Allen scowl for three years and the reverence I held for
this man silenced me with a gesture, without him even looking my way. Finally, he
got to the foreman and pushed the tape recorder in his direction He got
the foreman to admit that someone left behind that tank, and it occasionally
happens in other apartments. Last, he turned
to the resident director. The Allen
scowl was on in all of its horrifying glory.
The only way I can explain this is, that my Dad, articulately, verbally
gutted this man like a fish in front of the most powerful people in the school,
whom my accuser probably never met much less be in the same meeting.
Afterward,
the vice president apologized and almost, in a tearful voice, told us that they
would do anything to settle this matter. The foreman started crying, begging us
for forgiveness as he exclaimed he did not know he was involved in some sort of
plot. Dad took us outside. I was
swimming in what I just saw. He looked
at me with a slight grin and asked what I wanted. I could have asked for thousands of dollars
and the termination of the accuser, but I just wanted to clear my name. We went back and my Dad asked for an apology
in writing.
As we
walked to the car, my dad informed us, the glasses were not prescription. They were just for show. The pen did not have any ink. And the tape recorder didn’t have any
batteries.
I don’t know if my accuser quit or
was fired but he was never heard from again.
In reading
the Old Testament, God often talks about defending His loved ones with His
right hand. It is mentioned 132 times in
scripture. Recently, I researched why this
is used so often. During those times, when
someone threatened another person with their right hand, it meant they were not
going to hold back. It meant they were
going to use everything in their power to destroy their enemy or accomplish a
goal. My right hand has always been my dad.
I learned to only use it when I needed it because he could annihilate
anything I pointed him to. But for God
to say this, it means that He is using His omnipotent power on our behalf. To defend us, to protect us, to help us; He
is using the power that created the heavens and the stars and the sun. He is using the power that split open the Red
Sea for Moses and brought fire down from the sky for Elijah. He is using the power that raised Lazarus
from the dead.
One of my
favorite stories is when Joshua is pursuing His enemy when taking the promise
land. He prays to God to stop the sun so
they can continue their pursuit.
The Bible
is littered with all types of examples of how God defends the children of
Israel against what is trying to destroy them.
He sent plagues to the Egyptians and dropped an ocean on their heads. He blinded the thousands of soldiers when
defending Elisha. He sent one angel to
defeat 185,000 Assyrians for Hezekiah.
God could have snapped his fingers, and Joshua’s enemy could have had
heart attacks and or be paralyzed.
Instead, He fulfills Joshua’s request and stops the sun.
We know now,
the earth’s orbit is because of mostly the magnetic pull of the sun. So, the easiest way to stop the sun’s light
is to stop the earth’s spinning by suspending the sun’s magnetic pull. Yet, all the other planets orbit the sun as
well in the same way. So, in stopping
the magnetic pull of the sun, God stopped the universe to answer Joshua’s
prayer.
This is the
Heavenly Father we have. This is His
right hand. I know from having my earthly
dad as my right hand, the security of this.
By faith, if this is the power that God exerts on behalf of His
children, there is nothing in all of existence that can ever defeat us. Not evil.
Not sickness. Not sin. Not hardship.
Not shame. Not loss. Not death. Nothing.
Nothing can defeat us…ever.
Isaiah 41:10
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand
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