Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Crazy things I hear on the F train

I don't usually ride the "F" train anymore, though I used to ride it daily when I lived in Brooklyn. It just so happens that I went into Brooklyn the other day to visit my dog, and I had to take the F to transfer to the A to get home.

I stepped into the train and sat down. Directly across from me were two other women and to the their left against the train wall, there were two other women. Next to those women there was an older man, all bundled up and sitting by himself. He had a black beanie hat on, a black vest over a hoodie and a coat, boots and a cane. He seemed harmless enough and I was enjoying my ride, relaxing and looking at all the new advertisements, when out of nowhere he starts to yell:

"Man is in charge of woman, and any woman who tries to tell man what to do, she has a mental illness and man should kick her in the ass"

He repeated this sentiment three times and then added that in the "olden days" man could beat women with canes, which I do not think was too far from the truth.

During his sharing, all the women surrounding him promptly got up and moved to the next car. He was left all by his lonesome, surrounded by an empty sea of orange and yellow subway seats. I stayed where I was, just staring at the man, and wondered if he noticed lately that his skin color was black and not two hundred and fifty years ago, he and his kin were made to work the cotton fields, and then forced to abide by the heinous laws of Jim Crow and then they were granted the right to vote only if they counted as three-fifths of a person.

On another note, the word "slave" comes from the latin word "slavic" which means "white" you can discuss this with me if you wish, but I think it's an interesting point to bring up whenever my young black comrades complain about slavery, which coincidentally hasn't been happening very often lately since Obama took the oath of office.

Coincidence?

I think not. He told them to pull up their pants, and I think they did.

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