I’m Black and Support Gun Rights
It doesn’t take much to understand that if you’re vulnerable in your environment, you may need to act in self-defense
I’d just moved into a beautiful, cozy home, a lovely two-bedroom with a massive backyard for the dog to waddle in the dirt, in Oildale — by far the shittiest part of Bakersfield, California.
Let me say now: I was warned multiple times. Not by posters or signs, but word of mouth. (There’s a bit of an oral tradition in Oildale.) But this is 21st-century America, I thought, and this is California! It couldn’t be that bad. I soon learned that Bakersfield was a sundown town, a city that was rooted in racism.
I quickly acclimated to the town — surprisingly warm and welcoming, at least on the surface. We have our racist underbelly in Texas, but it’s mostly smothered into quiet pockets and unspoken in the stretch between Killeen and Austin. Any man in my position, especially coming from the military, would expect a similar welcome after moving to “progressive” California.
But it didn’t take long to notice some suspicious activity. It started with the whistling — my first introduction to “peckerwood” gang culture. The flavors on my streets were the Oildale Peckerwoods, the Southwest Peckerwoods, and the 88 WHITE POWER GANG…
