The Gods Must Be Crazy

"I have a body and a brain. The first is to get my men, the second is to keep 'em."

I have come to the conclusion that the dating gods must be crazy. They taunt mercilessly; they get my hopes up; and then they throw that eensy little thing in the mix just to screw me up. I know it, and I'm on to them...

I was looking forward to speaking further with Mr. Mmm Mmm Good (we'll just call him Mr. Good from here on in). He was the first dude to pique my interest in a long time...and he was FOINE.

We chatted on the phone; he was a bit reserved, but then so am I. He was a successful business man, older, and seemed like he knew what he wanted out of life. And did I mention that he was tall, dark and gorgeous? Plus, our little dirty dancing in the club (well, it wasn't all that dirty, but it inspired dirty thoughts...LOL) also had me excited (in more ways than one).

So he had a couple of kids; that wasn't a deal breaker for me - matter of fact, I was more interested in whether he took care of his kids than whether he had them, and he appeared to be a good father from the way he spoke about them.

So we chatted...and in one of these conversations we talked about traveling.

Me: So do you like to travel?
Him: Yeah, I traveled to a few places.
Me: Where's the best place you've been?
Him: They were all great.
Me: But if you had to choose one to go back to, where would it be?
Him: They were all equally good; I couldn't choose.
Me: Ok, fair enough. So where would you like to go?
Him: I'd like to go to Africa. I've been close by, but never to Africa.
Me: Oh, that's nice. Where?
Him: Africa
Me: No, where in Africa would you like to go.
Him: Just Africa.
Me: (confused) But the countries are different from each other. The North is different from the South, which is different from the West or the East.
Him: I wanna go to wherever they have the tribes like I see on TV.

I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. If a white dude would've said that to me, I'd know instantly what my response should be. I'd have been furious. But what do you say when it's a black educated thirty-something?

Me: I don't understand what you mean.
Him: Well, I want to see black people, because the last time I went to Egypt, I thought since it was so close to Africa, I'd see some black people but I didn't.
Me: Wait, you were in Egypt?
Him: Yeah, remember I told you I went close to Africa?
Me: Egypt is in Africa.
Him: Well, when I went there I didn't see any black people so I thought it couldn't be in Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to tell you that this was just a slight misunderstanding, but as we continued our conversation, it became clear that it wasn't. I won't bore you with the gory details, but the scope of his ignorance was wide-ranging: he didn't think white people could be from Africa either. For a brief moment, I was reminded of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Needless to say, I'm trying, but don't know if I can date him. You probably think this is an overreaction, but with so many avenues open to us today, there is no reason not to know these things - especially since they are part of your history as a black person! What even makes it worse was that he traveled there! And yes, I could teach him, but at this stage in my life, I'd like to date someone who could teach me a few things for a change.

So I'm still talking to Mr. Good on the phone, but our conversations are getting fewer and farther between. Like I've said before, I'm just not interested in a body or looks without the brain.

I really had high hopes for him...*sigh*