Wednesday, January 05, 2005
The source of racism?
So, I was making my way home tonight after work. The first step on my way home is a metro ride from Anacostia to Fort Totten on the Green Line. For those of you who don't know, Anacostia is in Southeast Washington, a part of town that is fairly notorious for being unsafe. I'm there because that is where Bolling Air Force Base is. And the DIA is on Bolling's grounds. And I work at the DIA.
The Metro platforms are generally between 50 and 200 feet underground and served by a combination of escalators and elevators. When it comes to escalators I am a "walker" that is, I don't like to simply stand there and be slowly lowered to the platform, I walk. In the DC metro area there is an unspoken rule - "Stand Right, Walk Left." If there is somebody standing on the left side they usually move aside when they see you coming of if you ask them to move so you can get by. This evening I was making my way down the escalator when ahead of me I saw a fairly overweight black girl listening to headphones. When I got up to her I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to move to the side so I could get around her and she complied. Well when I got about 15 or so feet ahead of her I was suddenly subjected to a verbal haranguing. This girl was yelling at the top of her lungs that that I’m not some important white guy who has to rush around and I need to learn to keep my dirty white hands to myself.
I suppose I could have waited for her at the foot of the escalator and explained that I don’t consider myself particularly important it is just that I don’t like to linger on the escalator. Plus I need to walk all the way to the opposite end of the platform so I am positioned for my transfer at the next station. And the only reason I tapped her on the shoulder instead of simply asking her to move is because she had headphones on and probably would not have heard me. I suppose I could have said all of this but it would have been a waste of breath because she obviously wasn’t capable of listening to reason.
So, my reaction was to yell over my shoulder to her to “Stand on the RIGHT side.”
Well, this unleashed a torrent of racial slurs and cursing. “Fuck you you motherfucking honkey! Who is this motherfucker coming in MY station telling me where to fucking stand? Goddamn saltine cracker white motherfucker!” All at the top of her lungs in a VERY crowded metro station.
Before going any further, I think that being called a “cracker” is hilarious. But, I do recognize that it is meant as a racial slur in this context. The funny thing is that one of the sources of calling a white person a “cracker” is a reference to the slave owner “cracking a whip”. That aside I simply ignored the girl. I considered, for a fleeting moment confronting her and unleashing my own flood of insults: “Listen you ignorant fat nigger slut. I don’t think I am any more important than the next guy but you are probably going to wind up the mother of several criminals by several different daddies because you spread your fat thighs for any homeboy who comes along because you are so pathetic and take affection in any form it comes. So enjoy your welfare mamma life you fat piece of shit.”
But I didn’t. First of all, it isn’t in my make-up to flip out like that. Plus, a quick look around revealed a platform filled with other black commuters. So, even if I were to lay into her as outlined above, I would probably have had my ass kicked many times over. So I just bit my lip and made my way to the end of the platform.
On my way home I got to thinking. What if the roles were reversed? What if I was hanging out on an escalator with a buddy and some black guy tapped me on the shoulder asking me to move aside? And what if I told him to keep his hands to himself and wondered aloud who this uppity nigger was who needs to get past me. And then, if he turned around and told me to stand on the right side I started calling him a “nigger”, a “jungle bunny”, a “spear chucking faggot” and any other racial slurs that came to mind?
Well, first of all, what probably would have happened is another ass kicking. A pretty well-deserved one at that. I would probably have been accosted by both blacks and whites alike. I would, at the very least, been given a serious evil-eye by any and all people within earshot of my recent tirade.
But none of this happened to my escalator buddy. It was pretty much seen as normal or acceptable behavior. I could hear people chuckling as this chick went off on me. And people wonder why there is racism.
The Metro platforms are generally between 50 and 200 feet underground and served by a combination of escalators and elevators. When it comes to escalators I am a "walker" that is, I don't like to simply stand there and be slowly lowered to the platform, I walk. In the DC metro area there is an unspoken rule - "Stand Right, Walk Left." If there is somebody standing on the left side they usually move aside when they see you coming of if you ask them to move so you can get by. This evening I was making my way down the escalator when ahead of me I saw a fairly overweight black girl listening to headphones. When I got up to her I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to move to the side so I could get around her and she complied. Well when I got about 15 or so feet ahead of her I was suddenly subjected to a verbal haranguing. This girl was yelling at the top of her lungs that that I’m not some important white guy who has to rush around and I need to learn to keep my dirty white hands to myself.
I suppose I could have waited for her at the foot of the escalator and explained that I don’t consider myself particularly important it is just that I don’t like to linger on the escalator. Plus I need to walk all the way to the opposite end of the platform so I am positioned for my transfer at the next station. And the only reason I tapped her on the shoulder instead of simply asking her to move is because she had headphones on and probably would not have heard me. I suppose I could have said all of this but it would have been a waste of breath because she obviously wasn’t capable of listening to reason.
So, my reaction was to yell over my shoulder to her to “Stand on the RIGHT side.”
Well, this unleashed a torrent of racial slurs and cursing. “Fuck you you motherfucking honkey! Who is this motherfucker coming in MY station telling me where to fucking stand? Goddamn saltine cracker white motherfucker!” All at the top of her lungs in a VERY crowded metro station.
Before going any further, I think that being called a “cracker” is hilarious. But, I do recognize that it is meant as a racial slur in this context. The funny thing is that one of the sources of calling a white person a “cracker” is a reference to the slave owner “cracking a whip”. That aside I simply ignored the girl. I considered, for a fleeting moment confronting her and unleashing my own flood of insults: “Listen you ignorant fat nigger slut. I don’t think I am any more important than the next guy but you are probably going to wind up the mother of several criminals by several different daddies because you spread your fat thighs for any homeboy who comes along because you are so pathetic and take affection in any form it comes. So enjoy your welfare mamma life you fat piece of shit.”
But I didn’t. First of all, it isn’t in my make-up to flip out like that. Plus, a quick look around revealed a platform filled with other black commuters. So, even if I were to lay into her as outlined above, I would probably have had my ass kicked many times over. So I just bit my lip and made my way to the end of the platform.
On my way home I got to thinking. What if the roles were reversed? What if I was hanging out on an escalator with a buddy and some black guy tapped me on the shoulder asking me to move aside? And what if I told him to keep his hands to himself and wondered aloud who this uppity nigger was who needs to get past me. And then, if he turned around and told me to stand on the right side I started calling him a “nigger”, a “jungle bunny”, a “spear chucking faggot” and any other racial slurs that came to mind?
Well, first of all, what probably would have happened is another ass kicking. A pretty well-deserved one at that. I would probably have been accosted by both blacks and whites alike. I would, at the very least, been given a serious evil-eye by any and all people within earshot of my recent tirade.
But none of this happened to my escalator buddy. It was pretty much seen as normal or acceptable behavior. I could hear people chuckling as this chick went off on me. And people wonder why there is racism.
posted by Anonymous, 9:33 PM
3 Buffaloes were bitter enough to post comments:
Ah, Soden! I was wondering when/if anyone other than the male Purd and myself were going to participate in this blog he praises so highly. Then you come in with a serious monster of a post and I love every damn word of it! Bless you and thank you!
Spoo!
Spoo!
Racism is still more or less in this context (that is to say, our own context) an issue of black vs. us and everybody else. I am much more keenly aware of it than I used to be, simply because a third of the people who live in the Carolinas are black. Nevertheless, I am glad to report I have never been called a "honky" or a "cracker" for any reason since I moved here seven... hell, almost eight years ago.
That's not to say I haven't had absurd racism experiences. For instance, almost 2 years ago a middle-aged white female (who also happened to be an incredibly intolerant bitch, but that's another story) colleague of mine was teaching a class on the software system we're installing in NC to a class of about 10 other colleagues, one of whom was an "ethnic"-sounding and -acting black man in his early-30s. At one point, she made reference to finishing a stage of the project, so folks could (and I apologize for the quotes here, because I am paraphrasing -- I wasn't actually there when this part happened) "fire up the cauldron and dance around it."
About two weeks later, our team (which included both the bitchy teacher and the black man) was called into a mysterious emergency meeting after hours, to be led by our esteemed and seldom-seen project leader.
He informed us, without naming any names, that a formal complaint of racism had been levied because of the incident, and that it was his responsibility to inform us about the grave nature of the action and the serious consequences that could result. He took great care not to name any names, but everyone knew who uttered the offending phrase, and everyone assumed who reported the offense.
The irony of the whole thing is our esteemed leader was a black man as well (and a bitchier, cockier, and just plain less likeable one you'd be hard-pressed to find), and he seemed squirmingly uncomfortable by the whole process. He even went so far as to say "someone found the comment racist, but for the life of me I don't get why."
Turns out our assumptions were wrong -- the accusation was formalized by a woman (white, psychotic) whose intent was merely to embarrass the teacher for a perceived slight that occurred months earlier. And it not only embarrassed its intended target, it embarrassed the poor black guy, who was perceived ever after as a troublemaker.
Maybe this comment should be titled "The Source of Chauvinism."
That's not to say I haven't had absurd racism experiences. For instance, almost 2 years ago a middle-aged white female (who also happened to be an incredibly intolerant bitch, but that's another story) colleague of mine was teaching a class on the software system we're installing in NC to a class of about 10 other colleagues, one of whom was an "ethnic"-sounding and -acting black man in his early-30s. At one point, she made reference to finishing a stage of the project, so folks could (and I apologize for the quotes here, because I am paraphrasing -- I wasn't actually there when this part happened) "fire up the cauldron and dance around it."
About two weeks later, our team (which included both the bitchy teacher and the black man) was called into a mysterious emergency meeting after hours, to be led by our esteemed and seldom-seen project leader.
He informed us, without naming any names, that a formal complaint of racism had been levied because of the incident, and that it was his responsibility to inform us about the grave nature of the action and the serious consequences that could result. He took great care not to name any names, but everyone knew who uttered the offending phrase, and everyone assumed who reported the offense.
The irony of the whole thing is our esteemed leader was a black man as well (and a bitchier, cockier, and just plain less likeable one you'd be hard-pressed to find), and he seemed squirmingly uncomfortable by the whole process. He even went so far as to say "someone found the comment racist, but for the life of me I don't get why."
Turns out our assumptions were wrong -- the accusation was formalized by a woman (white, psychotic) whose intent was merely to embarrass the teacher for a perceived slight that occurred months earlier. And it not only embarrassed its intended target, it embarrassed the poor black guy, who was perceived ever after as a troublemaker.
Maybe this comment should be titled "The Source of Chauvinism."
Unfortunately, a-holes come in all colors...