While eating, she shared her life story as well as introduced me (via phone) to her best friend in town, a man named Willie.  It turns out that Willie had seen my story on Fox News, and being a fellow cyclist and generally awesome guy, he offered to pay for our dinner!  While I never met Willie face-to-face, I can say that he was definitely a highlight of positive individuals I’ve met.

The next day Willie met with Eleni and Albert as they interviewed him and Amy about their experiences in the small town of Madison.  Willie is a black man, and while he didn’t seem too comfortable talking openly about the towns racial politics, he did share a little history about Madison’s connection to Willie Lynch, the infamous carribean slave master who is said to have trained north american slave owners how to condition slaves and reap the highest economic profits from their exploitation.  It turns out that Lynch had resided in the town at one point in his life.

So we found out that we were officially in the Deep South by the time we hit central Florida.  The next day confirmed it as I passed through Live Oak Springs in Suwannee county.  While announcing what I was doing (I tend to get confused looks in small towns when I walk into pubs in my spandex) the waitress took one look at my card and said, “hmm, well I wouldnt be speaking up about this too much here..you see, our town didnt take to fondly to the election”.  Meeting two black women from the town confirmed it, as they told me “you best keep on moving through here, for your own good!”.

The election of Barack Obama and subsequent reactions across the nation shed light on just how contrasting our nation can be.  Many are overjoyed, while MANY others, i repeat, MANY others, are not too happy about a ‘negro as president’.

So, while Newsweek and others keep on writing about this “Post-Racial” society that we’ve suddenly found ourselves in, I encourage anyone and everyone to suspend that thought and recognize that we still have a whole lot of work to do.

Heres an interesting example of some racial depictions in mass media.. This cartoon is from Betty Boop.

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(Please note that you will need the Real Audio Player in order to listen to the interview.)

We rode 130 miles here from Pensacola, FL breaking my previous record of 120. Gonzo and Josh and Eric, from Orlando, rode with me today and will also be trying to match todays mark (a personal best for everyone!).  Wish us all luck, and support, its not gonna be easy.

Here’s a couple fav’s from yesterday’s and today’s ride in Florida.