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22_FILLMORE

                                             December 10, 2007



  Riding the 22 Fillmore back from Japantown.

  There's a slow-moving, black young woman
  with sleepy eyes in the center of the back
  seat, quitely chatting on a cell phone.  She
  has very dark skin, and she's showing off
  really nice legs.

  A crowd of black kids (aged 8-10?) get on the bus,
  and begin doing their rowdy act, one of them
  climbing around on the overhead rails, etc.

       They talk to the black girl
       briefly, kidding her with
       some schtick like "no, we           Ah: so she's
       heard it on the radio, really".     recorded
                                           some music.




The black kids huddle around the side exit,
and one of them starts pushing things too far,
dangling around outside of the open doors,
yelling up the street.

  The bus driver -- an older, asian guy --
  tells them to knock it off.

  They (almost) immediately quiet down.

  The bus driver then adds "or I'll call the police".

  They start saying "Huh? What did you say?"

They get off the bus at the
next stop, run around behind
the bus, and yank the contacts         Before leaving,
off the wires, so the bus              they rap in unison:
driver has to walk around back
to put them back on.                     "We're black!
                                          When we get off of this bus,
He climbs back on the bus.                these motherfuckers are
Turns to us, and makes a                  going to say something
pronouncement:                            about us."

  "When you have black people,
   you have problems, when you
   have no black people, then
   you have no problems."


Dangerbaby and I -- sitting
in the back of the bus, as is
not unusual -- immediately
react:

   "Oops!" (say I,                       A glance around the
   scintillating, as                     bus: there's a mix
   always).                              of white, asian and
                                         latino at this point,
   She says something like               but no blacks -- the
   "You're driving in the                girl had gotten off
   wrong city, dude!"                    some time before the
                                         little kids.




   At this point, a white guy
   sitting by himself, turns over
   his shoulder, and looks at us,
   but says nothing, and I do          A latino guy in
   believe we've spotted one           the corner also
   of the "silent majority"            reacts in the same
   among racists.                      way at this point.    Difficult to
                                                             say what side
                                                             he's on, but
      Someone up front is saying                             I fear he's
      something like "kids these                             another member.
      days have no sense of --".

      But my take was almost                          DAY_FOR_THE_RACES
      completely opposite: this
      crowd of black kids was
      obnoxious, and misguided
      in a lot of ways, but at
      least they're alive.                   Misguided: defining "black"
                                             as synonymous with "obnoxious".
      White kids these days look to
      me like they're on this                     To my eye, the worst
      downward spiral into some                   thing about their
      autistic video game hell --                 behavior was that one
      they'd never think to play                  of the kids abandoned
      pranks on the bus driver.                   an ice cream cup on top
      Being "well behaved" is not                 of the wheel well.
      necessarily always such a
      good thing.
                                                   RACE_DOWN

                                          Embrace-thy-stereotype
                                          is not exactly a
                                          formula for success,
                                          is it?





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