Judas Iscariot Philbert smiled at his new roommate. J.I. had never met many African Americans, and loved this little dude's hair. It looked like a light-socket reaction.
"What're you reading there, Huey?" The kid seems to have almost no electronics. Does he not know that print is dead?
"I'm re-reading this." Huey gave J.I. a weary look. You could kind of tell Huey's one of those heavy types who don't like to be bothered when he reads. J.I. met people like that on the way to Lollapalooza, when he rode the Trailways.
J.I. squinted. "Soul on Ice. By Eckington Cleaver?"
Huey kind of bit his lip. The guy never smiles. J.I.'s dad always said "Let a Smile Be your Umbrella" Dad was a lieutenant governor of the Positive Humanist movement, but said that Christopher Hitchens and Dawkins were too negative.
"El-dridge Cleaver. You've not heard of Eldridge?"
"Oh, I have a reading disability." J.I. grinned. Surely being an inner-city guy, Huey will understand the disabled, who, like the gays, are part of the oppressed brotherhood. "Eldridge, Eckington, whatever. I totally support your reading."
"Wait, you're at Yale, and you can't READ?" Huey dropped the book. It looked to be a battered little paperback, with an angry looking dude on the cover.
"I can read a little. But I didn't do SATs and all that. I submitted a body cast as an art application, and they let me in. [Author's note: I met a Kennedy in an AA meeting who actually got into Harvard this way, could not read] But reading isn't all it's cracked up to be. I don't think there's really a lot of stuff written that interests me."
J.I. wondered if he should tell Huey that he was a skeptical sort who sees the world differently. It got him a blowjob from the fat tie-dye from Jersey at Orientation.
Huey shook his head. "Well, Eldridge Cleaver was a Black Panther-"
"Awesome! They shot people! My grand-dad has a signed poster of Bobby Seale and Jerry Rubin!"
"Jerry Rubin was a wannabe who turned into a stockbroker, and he wasn't a Panther. Seale sold out too, and Eldridge died a sad ex-born again Republican crack addict. But he had a soul once."
"And it's on ice?"
"God, I didn't mean to make a pun."
"No, it's funny, man!"
"Humor in this racist, cracker, white devil country is dead."
Wow, like print?
