Reason #874 I want to spend January on the otherside of the world

[rm]

Living in and growing up in NYC one gets used to hearing all manner of racial hostility, and mostly one also learns to overlook it -- afterall, everyone hates everyone else here, and the use of slurs generally indicates little more than poorly vented rage and a limited vocabulary.

Besides, I'm a girl. I'm not supposed to say anything, and normally, I don't.

Tonight after a long and emotionally killer day and an audition that took a lot out of me (sidenote: I have to chant "I hate myself; I hate myself" over and over under my breath after auditions -- it's where the nervous energy goes -- isn't that lovely?), I hopped in a cab.

I ignored the first several remarks the guy made about the Chinese, but when he started randomly shouting out the window at them, I said in the smallest most polite little voice, "Sir, can you please not make racist comments while I'm in the car?"

"This is America, I can say anything the fuck I want."

"True enough," I replied, "but please pull over here, as I wish to get out."

"No! You're not allowed!"

"Sir," I said trying to placate. "I'm going to pay you, I just would prefer to get out of your car."

At which point he pulled over and started threatening me, screaming about how he would beat my face in if I gave him any of my money, that I had no right to speak to him.

And so I jumped out and got in the cab behind him, unable to figure out why I felt so poorly for doing the right thing for once in my life.

Comments

[wauwau.livejournal.com]

*wow* That's a little FREAKY! Good for you for doing the right thing!

[ladyjaida.livejournal.com]

... Christ.

[deslea.livejournal.com]

You rock. That's all.

And, hi. I'm quiet, but I'm still here.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

oh man...don't feel bad about what ya did. I applaud!

True he has the right to say anything he wants, as much as you have the right to disagree.

If only more would do something such as you did, rather than just hope they go away, we'd be a lot better off.

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Don't feel bad -- you absolutely did the right thing.

I only wish you had been able to get his taxi driver ID number so you could report him.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Christ.

[ludimagist.livejournal.com]

Go you.

The only reason I can think of for feeling bad would be not going off on this man like he probably deserved, but I would think the quiet civilized response may bother him enough that he may actually have to think about his stupidity.

Go you again.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Well done. As someone else who responded mentioned, it's more likely that he will think about the hate he was spewing than if you had yelled at him. OTOH, speaking up in situations like that is very difficult, I usually don't and instead feel bad about not doing so.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a difficult situation to be in. I think you did the right thing.

[chite.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just have no idea what I would have done in that situation. Go you for doing the right thing.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

I'll think of this the next time I feel one of my I-wish-white-people-would-stick-up-more-often-for-us-nonwhites rants welling up.

[graene.livejournal.com]

no matter how much deprogramming of our childhood stereotypes we do, there's always more lurking. Good for you for doing the right thing. If it happens again, I hope you can feel better about it.

And I hope your day gets better!

[msmarlamae.livejournal.com]

Insanity at its finest.

Glad you got out okay, and really impressed you stood up to what he was saying.

[patashoqua.livejournal.com]

Go you.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

Actually, he doesn't have the right to say anything he fucking wants, and being in America has fuckall to do with it. He's doing a job, and you have the right to a quiet ride; it says so on the regulations. He has no more "right," while doing his job, to emit racist spew than a counter clerk does. I don't know if complaining about cabs ever does any good in this town, though.

[czarchasm.livejournal.com]

Doing the right thing is something other people do. One does not "do the right thing". One does what one has to.

Keep up doing the right thing! *big smile*