Can't we all just get along? Race un-relations on the CTA
I often hear disturbing stories about racial tensions and taunts on the CTA. I generally don't print them. In fact, I usually avoid identifying passengers by race in the Tattler tales I tell unless it's absolutely germaine to the subject.
Recently I heard two very disturbing stories about racial tensions, and I think it's time to share them here, and maybe have a dialog about race.
First, there's this recorded account of an encounter on the "Stony Express" between an Asian guy and a black woman:
Nerdy Asian guy: Why are you throwing your seeds on the floor?
Large lady: Excuse me?
Nerdy Asian guy: Um, pardon me, but I don't think you're supposed to do that.
Large lady: You tryin' to be all up in my face, tellin' me what I should or shouldn't done?
Nerdy Asian guy: No m'am, it's just that your getting your sunflower seeds on the floor and I don't think that's allowed. Mr. Driver, sir, will you please tell this lady to stop ruining my bus?
Driver: Your bus? YOUR bus?
Nerdy Asian guy: I am a Chicagoan, and as a Chicagoan I own part of this bus.
Driver: No you don't.
Nerdy Asian guy: I'm the one in college, I think I know more than you do, given the fact that you're a bus driver. What do you say to that, huh?
Large lady: You best shut yo' little fuckin' ching-chung mouth 'fore I come over there and shut it for you.
Nerdy Asian guy: Sorry, what'd you say? It was hard to understand with all the sunflower seeds flying out of your fat mouth.
Large lady: I bet you couldn't understand because I wasn't speaking no ching-chong-chong-chung-choong-chang-ching-ching-chong Chineseman speak.
More here.
Wow. Between the class-biased Asian guy and racist black woman, I just don't know what to say.
Now here's a story about a racist white guy. My wife was waiting for the No. 80 Irving Park to work one morning. Standing next to her was an older white guy whom she had seen many times before. In the past she recalls him sitting on the bus, muttering and ranting in a high-pressure combination of Serbo-Croatian and English.
On this day, he stood next to her, waited till she made eye contact, and then said, "You look just like my neighbor. She lived across the street from me, and she used to fuck niggers. All week long, there would be a parade of niggers coming and going from her apartment."
My wife turned to him and said, "Do you mind? I don't care to hear this conversation." Then he laughed loudly, and said, "Oh ho! I seem to have touched a nerve. Perhaps you too like to fuck niggers.
She turned to him and yelled: "Shut the fuck up!" Don't stand next to me, don't look at me, don't talk to me! Just shut the fuck up!"
That provoked him to say loudly: "See! I knew it. You're another one of those whores who likes to fuck niggers." By this time everyone at the bus stop was staring at my wife like she was the one who was crazy. Then, the bus came. They all boarded. And he just resumed his mutter rant, like nothing had happened.
Awful. What is going on, people? This racial hatred just seems to be ingrained in some people and it's hard to root out. Barack Obama gives me hope, but this stuff takes it away.
This conversation is idiotic. Black Woman was an asshole. Asian guy is too. Stop defending either of these assholes.
Also, most people choose not to act antisocially because they have a set of morals and ethics. It is not because some little punk-assed Asian Guy may call us out. Black Woman is lacking these morals and ethics. Do you want to chalk that up to relative disadvantage? Race? Poverty? Being an asshole? Whatever. It is what it is.
So, maybe we need to get a grip on (a) how important the violation of decency is, and (b) whether there is a more subtle way than Asian guy's to call attention to the issue. So, in the pregnant woman scenario above, I personally would judge the violation of (a) to be great, and would be perfectly willing to say something to the apparently able bodied man. Seeds on the bus are rude and annoying, but not to the level of the pregnant lady.
And if you piss on my front door you better pray to God that the police get there before I'm done with you.
Posted by: David | April 22, 2008 at 12:49 PM
"Asian Guy" is an asshole why? Because he doesn't like people spitting all over the bus, and actually said something about it? The bus driver didn't even give a shit, so what is he supposed to do?
I mean, Rusty may hate him because he's "Asian" guy, but all he did is vocalize what pretty much every poster here would like to say. What an asshole.
Posted by: Questioner | April 23, 2008 at 11:58 AM
I don't give a hoot whether "Asian Guy" was "German Guy", "WASP Guy", or "ET". I put "Asian Guy" in quotes (not "Asian" guy, as you do) for lack of a better thing to call him, and for clarity. His race has nothing to do with his actions. And I don't know him, so I can't hate him, either. All I can do is point out that he was as rude as "Black Woman" was, AND he escalated the situation multiple times, turning it into a melee.
And if you somehow want to turn this into an opportunity for racial-bating, that says an awful lot about you.
But I can see why you admire "Asian Guy". You both like to bait people to escalate a situation. So it's no mystery why you don't think he did anything wrong.
BTW... Vocalizing everything (you imagine) people want to say isn't heroic, either. Many of us have had fantasies of saying totally inappropriate things, but that doesn't mean the guy who has no self-control is right for actually saying them out loud.
The guy who says "nice boobs" to a woman on the bus may be saying what a lot of us might be thinking, but that doesn't make it right for him to say it out loud.
Oh... And congratulations on your trolling working. I took the bait and responded to you. You must be so proud of yourself about now because it's such a challenge to get me to say anything.
(And yes, irony police, I know that I'm saying inappropriate things, and escalating the situation, too. I never said I'm not rude, or that I've never escalated anything. But I also don't claim to be right in doing so.)
Posted by: Rusty | April 23, 2008 at 02:25 PM
In my mind the ideal scenario would go like this:
Nerdy Asian Guy politely asks Fat Black Pig Woman to please not spit her garbage on the floor.
She responds like a typical pig would.
Nerdy Asian Guy gets nowhere with her, so he goes to the bus operator, who should be enforcing the two rules being broken: eating AND littering. He seems disinterested in getting involved like a stereotype of a Typical Lazy Union Asshole.
Nerdy Asian Guy now transforms into Nerdy Class Bigot Prick That's Probably a Racist And Maybe Even Eats His Boogers Too Asian Guy. He now realizes that the entire world that he thinks he owns is actually made of shit.
Frustrated, Nerdy Class Bigot Prick That's Probably a Racist And Maybe Even Eats His Boogers Too Asian Guy pulls out a gun and shoots Typical Lazy Union Asshole in the face, causing him to crash the filthy seed-strewn bus into a rotting CTA concrete support pillar, killing all three idiots aboard, frying in Fat Black Pig Woman's ample body fat which melts due to the subsequent fire.
Moments later, a CTA train comes barreling down the track, which gives way due to the now-crushed concrete support pillar, causing it fly off the track and land upon Governor Blago's and Todd Stroger's coincidentally passing motorcades, killing everyone on the train and in the motorcade.
People that work on the CTA.
People that ride on the CTA.
People that don't properly fund the CTA.
They're all assholes anyway.
Posted by: crankyd | April 23, 2008 at 02:27 PM
I have witnessed 2 bus drivers kick people off the bus. Both times I was on the 66. The first time was when I pointed out a pickpocket to the driver (he had taken my bus pass, luckily another rider clued me in and when I confronted him it magically appeared on the floor). I don't think she called the cops or anything, he just got off.
The second time an older guy stood by the front door and ranted about how he hated any race that wasn't his own. He was looking for a fight, and he also didn't pay his fare. The bus driver kicked him off and then the driver himself got off and RAN across the street to flag down a police car and point out the vagrant to them.
Drivers have a hard enough time getting people to move to the back of the bus I don't blame them for letting littering slide. It's still gross though, the epitome of laziness.
Posted by: uncle lady | April 24, 2008 at 01:17 PM
The black woman's words, and attitude are TYPICAL when a non-black confronts a black about their behavior. I see this all the time. its a defense aimed to make you leave them alone - THEY GET LOUDER THAN YOU TO SCARE YOU. of course it works. usually the black person is louder and coarser than the white person and the white person responds back in a too-meek of a tone. In the end, the initial problem is never addressed - that of the black woman being a litterbug - she uses her LOUD DEFENSIVE VOICE to stop you from confronting her further.
the best next step would be when you confront a black person and she responds in that loud tone, you have to respond back in the same loud abrasive tone.
I've seen this over and over, and so please dont call me racist. I'm teling you how it is. if you dont believe me, do an experiment next time and see if this happens with you. speak up to a black woman about some aspect of her behavior and see if she doesn't get loud, defensive and curse you out.
Oh one more thing, a lot of black women will say "you have an attitude problem" if THEY think you have been rude to THEM.
Posted by: MishMosh | May 02, 2008 at 08:28 AM
One time in line, a black woman cut in front of me. I told her that she cut in front of me. She then proceeded to tell me that she stepped out of line to get an item and stepped back in and thus she felt like she could cut in front of me. Well i told her i didn't agree and then me and her escalated into a loud fight.
When I called her a bitch, that made her SO MAD. Black women hate being called that word. Again, she felt using her loud defensive tone of voice along with swearing was going to get somewhere.
how the matter was resolved was another cashier opened up another line and she went to that one.
Again, another black woman being rude.
Posted by: MishMash | May 02, 2008 at 08:32 AM
don't feed the troll
Posted by: not worth it | May 02, 2008 at 08:50 AM
Once on the subway in New York, I (white) asked a group of teenage boys (black) if they would please turn down their music. They ignored me, but everyone else in the subway car moved away from me.
Posted by: dianel | May 20, 2008 at 09:57 AM