"The ones that aren't there but look like you, anyways."

Sarah's mind once again slipped wistfully into the past, to that One Hot Summer in 1957 in Madison County...

"Miss Sarah, can I asks you a question?"

"Of course, my sweet Mandingo."

"Why is it that when White People have them a problem it is always the Negro that is the cause of the problem?"

"Oh, my silly Mandingo. When white people and Negroes have a problem together it is always the Negro's fault -- otherwise it would just be two white people talking and such."

"But sometimes I don't say anything and white people still get angry at me."

"That's probably because they mistake you for another problematical Negro. Because you all kind of look the same. Or similar. Like the Chinese."

"But there ain't no other Negro in Madison County."

"Yeah, but if there WERE, say, three Negroes in Madison County, you'd probably look like all of them, pretty much. That is why white people might get confused and think that there is a lot of you, causing trouble."

But Miss Sarah, I ain't causing no troubles."

"Yes, my Mandingo, but the other two Negroes that look like you just might be."

"What two Negroes?"

"The ones that aren't there but look like you, anyways."

"Miss Sarah, what can I do to stop those two imaginary Negroes from causing trouble?"

"I'm afraid there is nothing you can do, my Mandingo: those two imaginary Negroes, they're running wild."

"And I've never even seen them at all."

"Oh, Mandingo: problematic Negroes, they always have a way of hiding..."

I am Laslo.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/03/it-was-turnabout-tailor-made-to-delight.html