Ignorant idiots spouting racial insults

I’m coming out of Starbucks, after spending some time in there reading and enjoying a nice cup of joe before my run tonight. I start to head out to the bus stop and notice this ‘older’ guy, slightly balding. Sitting Indian style on the ground with a worn leather football in between his legs; he tries to beg for some money from another guy sitting on the bench. The guy on the bench pretty much tells him no. Well, it continues back and forth for a while. The guy on the bench is not letting it go, and the older guy, who now notice has most of his front teeth missing and is slurring his words together, is definitely not letting up. Something about alcohol inhibiting your better judgment, this continues back and forth to the point where voices are starting to rise and people are starting to look. Then the older guy utters like the ultimate racial epithet that a white guy can, ‘nigger’. You probably guessed it, the dude on the bench is black, and there are several of them around waiting on they’re various buses to come. This guy is so intoxicated that, he didn’t realize what he had just said, when the situation really started to get tense.

 

For reasons I can’t fully understand, I was so close to standing up and telling this guy off for saying what he did. It wasn’t just the word, but of course the context and his tone that really made this a potential powder keg.  This guy got me riled up about it as well, I was so close to just telling him what an ignorant and sad pathetic man, and it’s people like him along with Mr. Falwell, that unnecessarily poke and prod sensitive social areas. Instead of working on educating yourself, they are bitter and angry at people, and apparently over skin color. I wish I could make an excuse for this guy, about him being baited and drawn into this argument, but it was shameful to watch and witness.

 

I was really fuming about this all the way home. I cannot really understand why, but this guy really pissed me off. I hate, no, absolutely abhor intolerance. Especially when it’s based on something as superficial as skin color! And it’s people like him that keep perpetuating hate unnecessarily because they are bitter and want someone else to blame for they’re short comings. Since you really can’t blame an inanimate object for it, so… that’s enough for my soap box for the evening. Off to my run.