The white woman across the restaurant was staring me down, a look of genuine disgust and disdain. It wasn’t, admittedly, the first time in my life I’d gotten this look. I wondered what, if anything, I’d done to deserve it.
I would soon learn she was the owner of the restaurant — and that she was tossing out me and my friends for my conservative beliefs. On January 21, I’d been invited to Paradis Books and Bread in North Miami, Florida, for breakfast with a few of my new neighbors. I had never been to the restaurant, or even heard of it, but appreciated the opportunity to socialize with neighbors outside of our building.
As I sat at our table, the small group immediately began to pepper me with questions. One asked how I liked working as a political analyst for the Fox News channel. Another asked if I, a young black man, was “really” a conservative. I responded yes and, naturally, told them all about my book, “Taken For Granted, How Conservatism Can Win Back the Americans That Liberalism Failed.” We talked some about my baby brother, Christian, who was murdered on June 24, 2022, in Chicago.
