CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
Profile continued . . .

ARCHIVES!
Two Black Guys and a Ride From The Sweetest White Girl You've Ever Seen

Saturday, November 27, 2010

this entry brought to you by soul coughing, "super bon bon"


I was waiting for the bus the other day and it was heinously late. As time kept crawling by one of the four of us standing there called the bus company and found that the contractors working on the street construction didn't inform the city that they'd be closing down the road, so when the buses got to the blockage they suddenly had no idea where to go and just turned blind down streets while calling dispatch frantically and trying to figure out where to go. This left us standing around for ages while they figured out how to get buses to us; all told, we stood there for an hour and a half.

The guy who called the bus station as well as a weirdo and some other guy left at around 10 o'clock, leaving only myself and a black dude. The black guy was about six feet tall, just under my height, and while I wouldn't call him a big guy, he was extremely muscular. Also, he was wearing a doo-rag. I wouldn't call him an intimidating guy outright, and chatting with him he seemed really cool, but from a glance he didn't seem like the type of guy who got fights picked with him. If he wanted to look mean, he easily could.

Eventually the cutest, most fresh-faced, youngest, most spring flower-y, most adorable, Lolita looking girl showed up. She was undoubtedly 18, but not a mature looking 18, definitely the type where if she handed you her ID, you'd look hard at her face, then hard down at the ID, then hard back up at her face, shaking your head and then eventually giving in with an "Alright, fine, but I've got my eye on you."

Or, to put it more bluntly, you could have consensual sex with her and wake up the next day saying "I just raped a girl." And she'd say, "No, I agreed to it and enjoyed it, really," and you'd say, "No, you're too young, you don't even understand how life works. I just raped you."

Time passed and she declared that no matter what, she was going to miss her class down at Mesa college, which was further down the route (and, as people gathered and left and gathered again, were all inevitably headed to). She stood up and pulled out her cell phone.

"Hi mom? Yeah, I'm so glad I got a hold of you, I was afraid you wouldn't answer. Where are you? Uh-huh. Well I'm still at the bus stop. Yeah I know. I'm going to miss it, even if it shows up right now. Mmhmm. It's at 10:30. Can you come pick me up? Okay, awesome, hold on." Then she lifted the phone from her ear and looked at myself and the black guy and said "Do you guys want a ride? My mom can drive you as far as Mesa Community College. Do you guys want to come?"

Now, let me point out right now: I honestly don't think about race that often. I think about it philosophically and I'm interested in it, but in terms of my own race, I don't really think about it, and in terms other people's race, I don't really consider it much unless they're up in my face going "Yo dawg, I'm a black guy!" or "Hey esse, I'm Mexican, homes!" With that said, I recognize that this is the stuff of mothers' nightmares, to drive to some street corner to pick up her daughter and two black guys, then to be alone in the car with them for an indeterminate amount of time.

"Hi mom, yeah, can you give these two black guys are ride? Either of them weighs more than both of us combined, but it's totally cool! I've known them for four minutes!"

Even if I assume that 90% of people I meet aren't racist-- and I do-- and even if I assume that this girls' mother is an otherwise non racist person-- and she probably is-- I still recognize that this some primal shit with white people, that picking your daughter up along with two black strangers is just going to make some bear-like instincts come up.

I smiled at her broadly. She was the sweetest thing, and I said "No thank you," and I wanted to add "...but I don't want to get fucking maced today. But thank you so much for not being threatened by us! That made my whole week. You're adorable, sweetie. Here's a dollar, go get yourself some candy. Or a Corona, whatever the hell it is you kids do nowadays."

The black guy gave a big smile too and shook his head no but thank you, and while we didn't discuss it after her mom pulled up and she left, he kind of exchanged glances with me when she did, as if saying he was thinking the exact same goddamn thing.
-----



with love from CRS @ 6:28 AM 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment