Riverside Racist

"Hmmm... edit... find and replace... Asians... with... Muslims... save!"

This evening Sarah and I were headed into the city, it was too rainy to bike so we took the citycat in. As we get on I notice that the door separating the front deck from the midships enclosed cabin is open and rain is blowing in so I get up and shut it. There's a few people milling around but none seem to notice the rain. Just before our stop a slightly shorter than average man in his late forties in jeans and a white t-shirt with thin blue stripes comes up to me and says something like, "I bet they're from up the river [something] live in tents fucking camels." Of course I'm quite astonished and I ask him what on earth he's going on about. He responds, "Camel fuckers, living in tents, it really pisses me off, they should slide the door shut, camel fuckers."

Given the volume of his voice and his projection it slowly dawns on me that he isn't talking to me at all, he's just pretending to. He hasn't responded to anything I say, even though it's along the lines of nod and smile. I look around and see a man sitting on the left of the row of seats in front of me. Mr camel fuckers nudges me conspiratorially and looks at him, opining, "Those camel fuckers live in tents, not like us, eh? We close doors."

He thinks the man is an Arab, even though he looks Pakistani or Indian to me. He's not talking to me at all, I'm a prop in a racist attack. A white racist is including me, a black man, in his subset of humanity in order to hurl racist slurs against someone he thinks is an Arab. Who says multiculturalism doesn't work? He hasn't met the other guy before in his life, the guy had nothing to do with the door being open. Mr camel fuckers just felt like calling an Arab guy some names. By the time I figure this out he's gone out on to the front deck and I'm still sitting in my seat wondering what the hell I should do. I don't know what I could have done really, I don't know if the other guy heard him or anything and I could hit him for calling me names because he wasn't.

I wonder how many people like that are out there, people who feel safe enough in the current environment of government and talkback radio inspired fear and hatred to attack people like that. I'm glad I've started shaving my beard again.