2007 Rant: Fitewolks

So, I was reading through some random stuff today and I came across this rant about an exchange I witnessed on the train and my feelings about it. I thought it was kind of tragically funny, and definitely reminsicent of my general snarky outlook on life back then. It's always nice to look back and reflect, even when you do it just to make yourself feel EVEN BETTER about your current station in life. So, here goes:

On the train today, I realized that I really don’t like white people. My personal dislike has very little to do with historical stuff like slavery and colonization. I mean, that probably figures into it on a broad scale, but not really so much on a personal scale. Like, there are some individual white people who are kind and giving and honest and forthright. But I’m not talking about my personal, one-on-one interaction because honestly, my personal interaction with them has been overwhelmingly more positive than negative.

Nope, I ain’t talkin’ bout that.

What I am talking about is the carelessness with which they wield their dominion.

Like I said, I was on the train this morning. A Black woman boarded. I’d say she was in her late thirties/early forties. She was lugging a large backpack and wearing some royal blue scrubs. She was obviously on her way to work in a medical facility. She was also OBVIOUSLY not a physician.

Now, before people get their panties up in a bunch about how I know she wasn’t a physician or how I can just come out and say she wasn’t a physician, it’s just something one knows after dealing with physicians and riding the train for eons.

Anyway, so she walks onto the train at the same time as a white woman. They end up sitting in the two seats in front of me. The black woman is having a time with her heavy backpack. The white woman says “what a bag you have there.” The black woman just kind of smiles. She’s obviously NOT interested in engaging in conversation this warm August morning after probably getting her kids off to school, waiting for several other trains and lugging that heavy ass bag. The white woman looks at her and says “are you a doctor?” The black woman looks at her and says “no, I’m in school as a medical assistant.” The white woman smiles indulgently and says “good.”

Bitch.

Now here’s where my dislike peaks.

First of all, you’re in her business. Rule number one for black people is that we don’t like random folks in our business like this. We also don’t appreciate it when we see it happening. That sharing of personal information is very much frowned upon by us – especially in public spaces. This white woman don’ know this black woman from the hot dog vendor downtown on 14th & K, but she felt the need to get all up in her b.i.

Secondly: “good”….what the hell??? I mean, who has given you the authority to put your stamp of approval on what she’s doing with her life? On some “good nigger” shit. Good. One word says soo much about where she feels she is in life and its relationship to this black woman medical assistant student. Good. To me, it says, “good that you’re doing something with your life”. “Good” implies to me that there’s a “bad” or less desirable response that she could have given that would have been frowned upon and thought to be less worthy of approval.

Pissed me off.