OH NO!! I'M A RACIST!!
I was just starting out on the 11 one day from south Minneapolis. There was a guy that had gotten on. There was also an elderly lady with a walker that was also on my bus. I had let them both on and still had a few minutes so I read the paper as I waited for my departure time.
I left, right on time. By the time I got to 38Th street I was nearly 2 minutes behind. I had picked up quite a few people. I pulled up to the stop on 35Th street. Someone got on. The stoplight turned green and I pulled away from the bus stop and into the intersection. Kitty-corner from me I saw a lady waving her arms and running for the bus. I threw up my hands. I even said out loud "What? I can't stop in the middle of the intersection." There were cars behind me and cars parked all along the curb in the next block so there was nowhere I could pull over safely. It was just one of those times you had to keep going.
Much later, as I was getting near downtown, the guy that got on on my layover said loudly from mid-bus "You should have stopped for that lady on 35Th." I was caught off guard. I tried to explain that there was nowhere to stop and I was in the intersection. I even told him I was a couple minutes late at that point and she should have been at the bus stop on time. He then said I sat at my layover too long and that is why I was late. I tried to explain that I made a lot of stops and THAT is why I was late. Then he said "It's all in the color." He was a black guy. The lady running was Mexican or Indian or something, if I remember right. Me, being a white girl, only failed to stop in the intersection because the lady running wasn't white...yeah, sure. If he looked around the bus, I was by far the minority. Besides, if I were racist I sure picked the wrong job, not to mention I was living in the wrong city!! I didn't feel the need to prove myself to this loser by running down my personal history. I chose instead to just say "If you knew ANYTHING about me, you'd know what a ridiculous comment that was." I just hate it when people throw the race card for stuff that has nothing to do with race. It is like crying wolf. When there actually IS an issue with someone that really IS a racist, no one wants to hear it.
The best part came when I was telling this story to a friend of mine. She's a gay girl who I work with. She said I should have told him I kept going because I was homophobic and thought she looked like she might be gay. THAT was freakin' hilarious!! Can you imagine the reaction THAT would have gotten??!!
I left, right on time. By the time I got to 38Th street I was nearly 2 minutes behind. I had picked up quite a few people. I pulled up to the stop on 35Th street. Someone got on. The stoplight turned green and I pulled away from the bus stop and into the intersection. Kitty-corner from me I saw a lady waving her arms and running for the bus. I threw up my hands. I even said out loud "What? I can't stop in the middle of the intersection." There were cars behind me and cars parked all along the curb in the next block so there was nowhere I could pull over safely. It was just one of those times you had to keep going.
Much later, as I was getting near downtown, the guy that got on on my layover said loudly from mid-bus "You should have stopped for that lady on 35Th." I was caught off guard. I tried to explain that there was nowhere to stop and I was in the intersection. I even told him I was a couple minutes late at that point and she should have been at the bus stop on time. He then said I sat at my layover too long and that is why I was late. I tried to explain that I made a lot of stops and THAT is why I was late. Then he said "It's all in the color." He was a black guy. The lady running was Mexican or Indian or something, if I remember right. Me, being a white girl, only failed to stop in the intersection because the lady running wasn't white...yeah, sure. If he looked around the bus, I was by far the minority. Besides, if I were racist I sure picked the wrong job, not to mention I was living in the wrong city!! I didn't feel the need to prove myself to this loser by running down my personal history. I chose instead to just say "If you knew ANYTHING about me, you'd know what a ridiculous comment that was." I just hate it when people throw the race card for stuff that has nothing to do with race. It is like crying wolf. When there actually IS an issue with someone that really IS a racist, no one wants to hear it.
The best part came when I was telling this story to a friend of mine. She's a gay girl who I work with. She said I should have told him I kept going because I was homophobic and thought she looked like she might be gay. THAT was freakin' hilarious!! Can you imagine the reaction THAT would have gotten??!!
posted by Jeanne Ree at 2:24 PM
12 Comments:
Nothing substantive, just the following: I love your blog! Thanks for writing it.
People who unfairly play the race card actually fuel the flames of racism....
I used to live in a town where an *open* neo-Nazi drove a city bus. His calling the main stop downtown "First National Synagogue" instead of "First National Bank" and talking Posse Comitatus politics on his bus was disconcerting... but he always treated the passengers professionally, seperating work from ideology....
When I drove and someone pulled the racist card, I would tell them I was married to a (whatever). It usually shuts em up.
Hi Jeanne, I just thought the reason you reacted to this fellow was that you might be a just a bit hobophobic! Sounds like a bum to me!
I wish I had humor when I get innto these situations, but alas.
I lost track of you since the day I caught you on the #24.
Keep em smilin
i dont know how you do your job?? it would absolutely drive me crazy! you are a special person to handle all these different situations! Love your blog! you could really write a book! i dont take the bus much but when i do it drives me crazy for just my short ride! (rude people etc), hang in there!
Jeanie, You are great at what you do! These people are the least of our problems! Remember: You don,t have to go home with them.................
I have a polite term that describes the fellow with the "It's all in the color" comment, playing the race card. He's a "Professional Ethnic, a "rPofessional Black, Professional Hispanic, Professional Asian, Professional Whatever". Me, I give people with asinine comments like these the proper military boot camp response. Usually leaves them speechless because they don't know WHAT to say: "Thank you sir (ma'am)! May I have another, sir (ma'am)!"
The "Truth" is painful.
Thank you all for your comments. Luckily, most people are good, honest and fun to be around. There is always one loser like this guy that tries to mess up everyone else, but you just have to laugh and go on. I also look at it like "Thank God I don't have to live negative like that every day. Life would suck!"
Enjoy the people you come in contact with every day! It makes your day AND theirs!
There was a case in the 90s that the racists said;"We played the "Race Card".
Well,the case is now in the history books as the greatest criminal trial of this century.
It set the stage for the election of
B H Obama.
No, the war in Iraq and the economic crisis set the stage for the election of Barack Obama. The O.J. Simpson case is long forgotten in the minds of most people, it had no influence on the 2008 election.
I just wish ALL people would stop using race as an issue at all. So we all weren't born the same color...who cares?? If a rainbow were all one color, it would take the beauty out of it!
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