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Aug. 16th, 2002 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibetI took the bus today, and before we had even got as far as the fourth stop in Salem a senior citizen with a bad attitude got on the bus. The driver asked to see his MBTA ID for reduced fare, and the man didn't have one, so the driver said he'd have to pay full fare.
The man refused to pay full fare and got in a shouting match with an old woman who told him he should obey the rules and get an ID like everyone else. Then he got into an argument with the driver.
Driver: I'm just doing my job.
Man: No one else checks my ID.
Driver: That's not my fault. You have to have an MBTA ID for reduced fare.
Man: You only hassle people who aren't your own kind.
[Confused beat]
Man: You're a racist. It's racism, pure and simple.
The black kid sitting behind the man supressed laughter.
For you see, as far as anyone could tell, both the man and the driver were of generic European descent.
Perhaps the man was Jewish. Perhaps he felt put-upon because of the fact that his, I dunno, Luxembourgian ancestry never got any respect.
But it wasn't obvious.
The driver probably would have been content to let the man ride this time, on the condition that in the future he have the proper pass, but the man continued to be quarrelsome and the driver finally said he had to get off the bus. To which the man replied that he wouldn't, he would report him for "racism," and the driver would have to call the police if he wanted him off.
So, after suggesting the man look up "racism" in a dictionary, the driver called the police.
We waited for about fifteen or twenty minutes until Salem's finest arrived. One or two people on the bus suggested to the man that he was being unreasonable; he did not respond favorably to the idea. When the police arrived, he stormed off the bus to tell them about his unfair treatment at the hands of the MBTA.
The man refused to pay full fare and got in a shouting match with an old woman who told him he should obey the rules and get an ID like everyone else. Then he got into an argument with the driver.
Driver: I'm just doing my job.
Man: No one else checks my ID.
Driver: That's not my fault. You have to have an MBTA ID for reduced fare.
Man: You only hassle people who aren't your own kind.
[Confused beat]
Man: You're a racist. It's racism, pure and simple.
The black kid sitting behind the man supressed laughter.
For you see, as far as anyone could tell, both the man and the driver were of generic European descent.
Perhaps the man was Jewish. Perhaps he felt put-upon because of the fact that his, I dunno, Luxembourgian ancestry never got any respect.
But it wasn't obvious.
The driver probably would have been content to let the man ride this time, on the condition that in the future he have the proper pass, but the man continued to be quarrelsome and the driver finally said he had to get off the bus. To which the man replied that he wouldn't, he would report him for "racism," and the driver would have to call the police if he wanted him off.
So, after suggesting the man look up "racism" in a dictionary, the driver called the police.
We waited for about fifteen or twenty minutes until Salem's finest arrived. One or two people on the bus suggested to the man that he was being unreasonable; he did not respond favorably to the idea. When the police arrived, he stormed off the bus to tell them about his unfair treatment at the hands of the MBTA.
