ixtow
Founder's Club Member
I had an interesting experience with an "Urban American" at a Downtown Subway. I've had a few days to reflect on it.
The individual referenced in the title literally was wearing his pants around his knees. He had on 2 different pairs of boxer shorts, fully exposed. But his attire is not what I took issue with. I describe only to note that there is a reason for the stereotype.
It was his boldness in approaching the counter, pushing two patrons out of the way, and placing his order while pointing his index finger only inches away from the face of the Employee making the sandwiches. The place was crowded, the line wound and doubled back more than once. Really, pushing people out of the way to cut in line? Lets not pretend. A Subway restaurant filled with sissy white college students all trembling in terror of what was going to happen next. He was getting his desired ego trip, so what WOULD he do next?
So... What do I do? Nothing? Speak up? In a situation such as this, I'm more than willing to kick somebody's ass, but I do my best to avoid it getting there.
He looked around seemingly sizing everyone up. He quickly realized that I was the only person in the building who wasn't afraid to look him in the eye. This guy was looking for people to intimidate as the thoughts above went through my head. Sh!t, now I've made eye contact. It's some kind of macho staring contest. Oh, how I abhor people who can't pull their head out of their hormones. If I let it go, will that be the end of it? Or will that prove no one in the place will step up? I'm not very good at reading behaviors of people like that. It makes no sense to me. I adopted the premise that if one acts like an animal, I should respond like one or something bad might happen.
I decided to take the quasi-passive approach. I was wearing the very same shirt and pants seen in my avatar. I brushed the bottom flap of my shirt out of the way as I turned my body, as if to break eye contact and let it slide like all the other people who were afraid of him. This fully exposed my 1911. It's very hard to miss.
Said crass individual left. :-/
Nobody spoke. Not to me, not to each other; aside from filling orders. It was a kind of awkward angsty cluelessness. Humans really live like this... Anyway, nobody ran away. Apparently nobody called 911, either, as I stood in line patiently and then proceeded to eat there. Probably 40+ minutes in total. Only 20 blocks from the PD, response time cannot be that abysmal, right? Even on foot, that's 2 minutes per block...
Too much?
The individual referenced in the title literally was wearing his pants around his knees. He had on 2 different pairs of boxer shorts, fully exposed. But his attire is not what I took issue with. I describe only to note that there is a reason for the stereotype.
It was his boldness in approaching the counter, pushing two patrons out of the way, and placing his order while pointing his index finger only inches away from the face of the Employee making the sandwiches. The place was crowded, the line wound and doubled back more than once. Really, pushing people out of the way to cut in line? Lets not pretend. A Subway restaurant filled with sissy white college students all trembling in terror of what was going to happen next. He was getting his desired ego trip, so what WOULD he do next?
So... What do I do? Nothing? Speak up? In a situation such as this, I'm more than willing to kick somebody's ass, but I do my best to avoid it getting there.
He looked around seemingly sizing everyone up. He quickly realized that I was the only person in the building who wasn't afraid to look him in the eye. This guy was looking for people to intimidate as the thoughts above went through my head. Sh!t, now I've made eye contact. It's some kind of macho staring contest. Oh, how I abhor people who can't pull their head out of their hormones. If I let it go, will that be the end of it? Or will that prove no one in the place will step up? I'm not very good at reading behaviors of people like that. It makes no sense to me. I adopted the premise that if one acts like an animal, I should respond like one or something bad might happen.
I decided to take the quasi-passive approach. I was wearing the very same shirt and pants seen in my avatar. I brushed the bottom flap of my shirt out of the way as I turned my body, as if to break eye contact and let it slide like all the other people who were afraid of him. This fully exposed my 1911. It's very hard to miss.
Said crass individual left. :-/
Nobody spoke. Not to me, not to each other; aside from filling orders. It was a kind of awkward angsty cluelessness. Humans really live like this... Anyway, nobody ran away. Apparently nobody called 911, either, as I stood in line patiently and then proceeded to eat there. Probably 40+ minutes in total. Only 20 blocks from the PD, response time cannot be that abysmal, right? Even on foot, that's 2 minutes per block...
Too much?