When I was about 15 years old, I included a reference to "little boxes made of ticky-tack"* in some speech or the other to an audience of African Americans as part of some Junior NAACP program.

I recall that the audience seemed to really like some parts of my speech, but was silent after my "little boxes" line that I had expected would be a zinger line that would elicit laughter or applause or something.

Giving it some thought directly after the speech, I realized that I hit too close to home (if you'll excuse that expression) with that line because some of those attending that function were probably proud new owners of those recently built houses. Part of my reason for including that reference to that song was to chide people for being self-satisfied and not reaching back in their comfort to help others. But I remember feeling bad that "little boxes made of ticky-tack" line kafter my speech because I was sneering. And I realized that my motivation was jealousy since I lived in the city's public housing project and I would have preferred to live in what would have been definitely a couple of steps up from that.

I've often thought about that speech. Because of how I felt afterwards, I realized that "sneering" doesn't become me, or at least I don't want it to. And since then I've tried to check myself out when it comes to why I want to say the things that I want to say.


*I'm very sure that I used the phrase "ticky-tack", not "ticky-tacky". That's interesting because something or someone being "tacky" (meaning "cheap") was and is still a common colloquial expression in the Black communities in which I've lived.