Saturday, July 01, 2006

Unsafe New York

New York is unsafe. I know you know. But you don't know the extent of it - to buy an ice cream cone, to eat out at a public place, to walk down the street...What do you encounter? Harrassment. Of various kinds.
First, there is a mental anguish that is imposed upon you by the hateful looks and insinuations made to your skin color or gender: here comes the white girl. White? I want to say. Actually I have never chosen for myself to go by this term. I am a proud Caucasian. From Caucasess. Also, I am Russian and since we have gone to National points here, and have associated individuals with nations: I have saved your ass during both the Napoleonic War and WW2. How about that? Also, I have Jewish blood- are Jews white? Have you heard the term "Semite?" Also, I am a tranny - are trans people white? Or are they just trans? Or are they sub-human?Also, what if only in this light I apper white? What if only you see me as white? And, damn it, what is wrong with being white? And I am white. Ok. I am. So? National discrimination is illegal. What have I or my ancestors ever done to you? We have enslaved our own people in a manner of serfdom, after all... Not yours. Especially not Spanish. All claims shoud be made to Spain, you know. So, this projection on their part would be ok, if not for the fact that it is unsafe to buy an ice cream cone from a Hispanic fellow if you are white - he's got his home-buddies standing around the truck harrassing women with such sentiments as "ya chillin' hey?" They also tend to get really upset if you don't answer them or answer to tell them to keep to their own business. They make sure you are quite aware of their being upset by pusing you or saying something very nasty. They get away unharassed, and you, defending your right to being unharassed, do not get away but get more abuse.
That is because they, long ago, have made your business - their business. Whoppie la la. And no one, but no one has asked me, if its ok with me, or if interferes with my freedom of being? Now your right has infringed upon mine -no?Your right to feel more of a human being at my expense? And what about the fact that you actually intimidate me and ensure I don't come back to your friend's truck and will not purchase his ice cream? And will tell my sensitive artistic and humanitarian friends to stay away unless they want to busy themselves with verbal rebuttal during, before and after such a simple procedure as an ice cream purchase.
And in the restaurants? There is a rigid system of pecking order that by now has achieved such proportions that it interferes with my receiving a quality service and a meal that is not cold. The waiters are too busy masturbating one another and their manager, my meal gets in pieces and cold, checks are often - and with other people, my roommate will testify to that, come messed up or wrong or from another table. No one subscribed to Restaurant Mafia, you know, we all just want a meal during which our lives don't have to discontinue and become your property. The payment of the check? Forget it! It becomes an intricate psychological game of who-will-be-the-sucker to pick up that check with waitresses darting to and fro and busboys intimidatingly slamming the water containers on the bus station. And God forbid you ask the waiter that is not "yours"(didn't know I owned a waiter, slavery I guess is still in, after all) for a glass of water. You will be measured up and down, despised and looked at for another half an hour. Sorry, next time I will bring myh own bottle, I guess? Horrified facial expressions, sad face, dumb face, a true, real indignation. A real complex range of human emotions passes before one's eyes in a matter of seconds. God, I want to say- if I really made you so unhappy, let me leave and NEVER come back. I really don't like to see you this way!
To be continued after the boiling point will become reduced...