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It’s my turn to laugh.
“Let’s start with the real reason I’m here then. Tell me how A Place of A Different Color came to be. At one point in time, you were set to take over your family's business, were you not?”
Remi would not be a good poker player. Every emotion he has flickers across his face. The wince of pain he makes when I mention Lancaster United doesn’t help either.
“I was, yes,” he concedes. “Then I quit.”
Deb interrupts.
“What he means was that he set himself on fire, metaphorically speaking, and went out in a blazing glory.”
The man himself takes a swig of coffee, nodding his head in agreement.
“True. Very true. Being the faithful and reckless lioness that Deb is, she jumped into the flames and followed me right out the door.”
The love and mutual respect between the business partners is obvious as she bumps her shoulder against his.
“For as long as I can remember, my father droned it into my head that my place in the world was to be a leader in my community. My life was set for me before I was even born. Then I woke up one day and realized that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“It was a long time coming,” Deb steps in to say. “A long time. The Dragon is not an easy man to work for, and as a parent, well…I’ll let you imagine that.”
The Dragon being the code name for Remington Lancaster the II, former President and CEO of Lancaster United. His reputation as a ruthless and unsympathetic businessman is legendary.
The business partners will continue like this for the remainder of the interview. Remi states what he sees as the facts, and Deb expounds on them to show a broader picture. Blunter, too. And probably more embarrassing than Remi would like.
“But you are a leader in your community,” I remind him.
“I am,” he agrees with pride. “Just not the community they wanted.”
That community, of course, is the LGBTQA+ community. Remi embodies the struggle a large majority of LGBTQA+ Americans go through. Raised by a man who used the “family values” excuse to emotionally abuse his only child and keep him in the closet. Remi had it twice as bad being a person of color, and by being a well-known personality in both the business world and the echelons of New York High society. While money makes everything easier, it added a burden to his specific situation that few of us would understand.
As Deb said, Remi literally burned his life to the ground, and A Place of A Different Color rose from the ashes.
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking, that made you realize you needed to do something different with your life?”
His smile is soft around the edges.
“I did what every human dreams of doing. I fell in love with my best friends.”
Deb bobs his shoulder again.
The story is quite well known in certain circles. Remington Lancaster the III, heir to the largest black-owned company in the world, quit his life when he fell in love with his best friends, who, at the time, happened to be married to each other.
The three were married in a civil ceremony eighteen months after their illicit affair began, two months before their first child was born.
I want to ask more questions about his spouses and the hurdles they’ve had to climb to get where they are, but…
“So, what happened next?” I ask instead, sticking to the matter at hand.
“Well, we realized we were unemployed is what happened next,” Remi says with a laugh. Deb intervenes. “I was unemployed. Rem was independently wealthy.”
The look he shoots her is priceless.
“Anyway…we were sitting around the kitchen table nursing coffees, much like we are here, and Justin asked me what I wanted to do with my life. Deb is right, of course. Even cut off from my family, they couldn’t take my trust fund. I never had to work again if I didn’t want to. But…at Lancaster United, I brought companies under our umbrella. Usually failing businesses that I could get on the cheap. But so often, I’d wished that I could help those businesses instead. I admitted my secret shame to JJ—”
“The big back black man has a heart,” Deb jokes. “The horror.”
He is rather large.
