Curt Ford played for the Cardinals and Phillies from 1985-1990, he makes his home in Missouri. It was just a normal day and Ford was getting gas like millions of other Americans. This day was different though.
Ford, 54, was at a gas station in Fenton, Mo., a suburb south of St. Louis, when he and another man approached the same gas pump, according to the Dispatch. Ford backed up and used a different pump. The other man, identified by police as James Street, 37, drove past the pump and parked in front of the store.
Street got out of his car and began yelling racial slurs at Ford, but Ford did not confront him. “Go back to Ferguson you Nigger,” Street said, referring to the nearby city that was the site of racial tensions this summer, a police source told the Dispatch.
Street entered the store and exited as Ford was walking in to pay for his gas. Street “approached Ford, and unprovoked, punched him in the face, and drove away, according to police,” the Dispatch reported.
Is this part where people tell Black America to “move on” because racism doesn’t exist or we are making too much of things?
What I hope people would start to understand is the burden of being an African-American in society. You can’t even get gas without worrying about something happening to you. It is a heavy burden to have.
Street was arrested charged with assault motivated by discrimination in the third degree. Honestly, he should be charged with a lot more.