Derrick Lewis is a hero.
The man who felled all who stood in his path, spare that dumb Kiwi, who defended the honor of Ronda Rousey from the villainous Travis Browne, who provides Carlin-esque humor on Instagram, and who makes sure to never shit inside the Octagon, is now saving human beings.
Lewis did an interview with MMAJunkie talking about how he’s been out there rescuing lost souls during the recent hurricane in Houston, where the UFC heavyweight lives.
At one point, Lewis came upon a man in need of help. That man only had his clothes and his one other cherished possession: a confederate flag. Lewis, who is also black and thus not a fan of slavery and the rebellious war that Stars and Bars represents, didn’t care.
rawstory.com grabbed some quotes from Junkie:
“I picked up one guy and his family, his wife – he just kept apologizing to me, because all he really had was his clothes, and he wanted to take his Confederate flag,” Lewis recalled. “He wanted to take that with him, and he just apologized and said, ‘Man, I’ll sit in the back of your truck, man. I don’t want to have my flag inside of your truck like this.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m not worried about that.’”
“He’s saying, ‘You never know if you ever need someone, so …’ – I already knew where he was going with it. I just said, ‘Don’t even worry about it. It’s OK. I don’t care about that.’ His wife kept hitting him and saying, ‘You should have just left it,’” Lewis continued.
Lewis said he wasn’t dismayed, adding, “I live in Texas. It ain’t nothing new. I’ve been living in the South all my life, and it ain’t nothing I hadn’t seen before or discussed about. I don’t care about that type of stuff. I just wanted to help him.”
I love everything about that exchange: Lewis understanding that a dumb culture war fight over a piece of clothe isn’t important when actual lives are in immediate danger; the man holding on to something important to himself but also knowing that Lewis wouldn’t be comfortable with it; the wife hitting her idiot husband for being an idiot husband. Think about that: what more proof do we need in life as to the complexities of life? A white man wanting to keep a flag that’s associated with racism, but also happy for the help of a black man. And the man’s reaction, to hide it and keep it out of sight, can only bolster the case that it isn’t as simple as “only racists like this flag.” The man didn’t deny he had it, he just knew Lewis might not be happy seeing it, and so he was willing to tuck it away. It meant something different to both parties but they put that aside and focused on the important things: defeating Mother Nature, the vengeful bitch that she is.
They say storms are Acts of God and they’re right: man coming together to help is proof of the divine.
It feels good to help people pic.twitter.com/RtyYIkdGor
— Derrick Lewis (@Thebeast_ufc) August 28, 2017
Oh, and, LOL at rawstory.com for the headline: “Texas man insisted on saving his Confederate flag as he was rescued from flood by black MMA fighter.”
Comments 1