Donald Wright is unflappable. The calm, level-headed member of the WrightHouse Group at Ebby Halliday Realtors stays cool even during heated negotiations. He’s a consummate professional with his clients and a kind and caring friend to those close to him. So when a man shouted a racial epithet at Wright as the Realtor was chatting with a colleague and friend outside a luxury property in a prominent neighborhood, his companions were shocked. Wright, however, was unfazed.
“For Donald to handle that in such a way was incredibly impressive,” said Cormac Ostrom, a friend of Wright’s who was standing with him when the incident occurred. “This man was driving 20 miles per hour down the street, yelling out the window like that. We were like, did that just happen? Should we talk about what just happened? Donald was able to remain calm and steer the conversation back to the house. It was remarkable how professional he was after that.”
The incident left Ostrom feeling helpless and shocked. “I wish there was more we could do,” he said. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the racist verbal assault occurred during Black History Month.
Donald Wright Rises Above
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve been called that,” Wright said of the racial epithet hurled at him by the man in the car. “I can think of a couple of times.”
This time, Wright decided to reach out to the phone number of who he thinks is likely the owner of the car, he said in a Facebook post.
“My goal is to have a conversation with them, to extend myself,” he told daltxrealestate.com. Wright explained that the whole reason people feel emboldened to shout racist epithets from their car windows is that, as a society, we don’t speak out enough about racism.
“That’s the bigger issue,” Wright said. “We need to come out and say ‘That’s not OK,’ in those places where someone might feel it’s safe to say racist things.”
Yesterday, while showing a home to a friend and while being shadowed by the nephew of another friend who is considering getting his real estate license, the unthinkable happened. I was called a F N phrase that rhymes with maggot bigger by a dude driving by as we were standing outside discussing the home. My buyer heard it, the guy that was shadowing me heard it and the designer that showed us the home heard it. It was jarring, it was shocking and, yes, it made me angry.
Fortunately, I quickly recalled what my amazing grandmother used to always say – “Sticks and stones may break your bones but words never will.” Those words were a reminder to remain calm.
It sucks that this is a reality in February 2023. It sucks that just minding my own business led to this. It pisses me off. But, they are just words spewed by some miserable guy who hates himself and maybe even life itself.
The take away? Those words don’t hurt me. They don’t define who I am. And, I’m still going to try to sell that $4.5 million dollar home. The buyer, my friend’s nephew and the designer were all as shocked as I was. But, honestly y’all, although it did make me angry, I wasn’t bothered. I pity the miserable guy who drove by and said that while I was standing in a private yard minding my own business. I did get a license plate number and I’ve reached out to who I think is the owner of the vehicle. I’m not sure if the owner was the driver or not. But, if it is and if he has the same boldness to explain why he said what he said, I’d love to have a conversation with him. A real conversation. A man to man conversation. I’d love for him to see face to face how I react to his comment, how hateful his comment is and how making that comment only hurts him. It shows what a coward he is and how weak he is. I’d love for him to get to a place where he reconsiders doing that to someone else. He might stay the same. Who knows? But, he’ll certainly learn that at least one N has already processed through the anger, remains unbothered and remains committed to striving to consider what it looks like to love like Jesus loves. I hope that he returns the call and is willing to have a conversation.
One more thing. We are in the middle of black history month in 2023. Over and over and over and over again, I hear stories and read about people (some of them politicians) who want to erase black history and pretend like there isn’t a problem. So many of my black brothers and sisters experience far worse than I do. And, many of us watch in unbelief as those around us remain silent and even support and sign off on those who want to erase our history. Erasing our history just further normalizes what I experienced yesterday. It normalizes the negative reaction that so many have to simply hearing a song like Lift Every Voice and Sing. It simply normalizes the hatred. The nephew of my friend said this in the car after that incident yesterday, “Donald, honestly, until just now, I am the guy who would have said that this never happens and that people just make this stuff up. I have to do better. I want to learn from this.” Let’s all be like that 20-year-old kid.
The struggle is real and no racist will ever quiet me or keep me from raising awareness and challenging people, including myself, to do better and be better.
