Monday, August 3, 2009
Black People at McDonald's (oh yes!!)
So I'm at McDonald's, yes McDonald's. Because Sometimes you just need to not care about what you do with your body. And since I refuse to take this approach in other areas such as say sex and physical intimacy, I figured I'd use my opportunity on a quarter pounder every other week. Much safer, less emotionally painful, and faster. So like I said, I'm at McDonald's. And I'm engaged in not caring when I'm interrupted by an argument that breaks out between a young Black mother of...... (let's say three.....didn't actually get a chance to see all of the kids she had with her) and an older Hispanic or White guy who was reading a newspaper. One of the kid's with the young Mom had begun to play loudly with a toy motorcycle, much to the disliking of the older man who was just one seat away. The old man then lets out a passive aggressive grunt. In response the mother screams out...."ummm you can go to the lie berry (library) if you wanna read." Can you see where this is going? Things escalate as the two go back and forth, and a number of verbal threats and expletives rhyming with tuck, stuck, pluck, and ship are exchanged, along with a few N words ( f.y.i. N words spoken by the black mom...otherwise yall know I would have jumped in...lol). Anyway, the truly sad part of this story is that after the old man leaves due to being physically threatened, one of the kids, no older than 4, begins repeating verbatim every word that the mom just spoke. She doesn't correct the child, after all, how can she? The kid just goes on repeating in his toddler accent "Motherphwucker.....fwucking bish.....pushy ash bish" (excuse my/his/mom clearly not on her job's language). Now I'm definitely not one to try and say anything to anybody else about raising their kids, I don't have any. But as an Uncle, Pastor, and simply a human being my heart just wanted me to walk over there and say "LADY IS YOU CRAZY!!!".........but.....logic prevailed.....I guess...and I walked out, not in the least bit "embarrassed to be black". I'm too proud of the legacy of my people stemming all the way back to the pyramids in Egypt to ever feel that way, but just worried about that kid, and that mom, that family, our communities. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe her behavior that afternoon was just part of a long day for her, maybe she corrected her son when she went home, maybe every thing's fine. But what if it's not? And if it isn't, what are we/you supposed to do about it? Or am I just making too many assumptions?
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very entertaining and thought provoking blog.
ReplyDeleteyou can replace black with korean, and the dialogue in korean, maybe in a korean food court, and you got one of my observations sometimes! makes me scared to be a parent. i think i'll do a decent job of child rearing, but when my kid is hanging out other people's kids, it makes me thing twice.
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