Interesting things happen on subways. I had a very interesting experience on the subway just tonight. The entire event occurred between the 96th and 110th street stops.
I was riding north on the 2 headed home. At about 72nd street, a large group of middle-aged black women got on the train and were sitting all around me. They were having a jovial conversation and laughing it up as I copied words from one word journal to another. All was well.
Near the 96th street stop, a middle-aged white man came on the train, yelliing at the top of his lungs that all he wanted was food. “I’m a cancer survivor and I have HIV. All I want is some food. If somebody could just give me a penny, I need help.” Suddenly, I realized that I had a whole bag of pretzels and chocolates from TFA that I didn’t even really want. They had been given to my be the class facilitator because I was the last to leave and she was traveling to DC. Upon making this realization, I raised up the bag and offered it to the man. He accepted, and said thanks.
This would be a great story if it ended here. But recall that I said it ended at 110th…
The man proceeded to turn away from me and pace in front of the women, finally addressing them: “All of you wannabe Christians, can’t even look me in the eye. Can’t even give me any food. If it weren’t for real Christians like this young man over here…” The women looked displeased, but were saying nothing.
I couldn’t help myself. “Sir, I’m not a Christian. You shouldn’t make such hasty assumptions.” He turned to me, and asked me if I wanted my pretzels back. Then, he threw them at me. In response, I said, “No sir. I want you to have the pretzels. I just want you to recognize that you don’t have to be a Christian to be a good person.” He accepted the pretzels again.
The story should have ended there. We arrived right then at 100th St, the door opened, and he headed toward it. But then he turned back, and looked at the women again. Again, he began to slander them. This time, he started talking about how his brother was a linebacker coach for some football team, and how Giuliana had wronged him, and so on. He minced in insults to the women in all of this. Finally, one of them asked him to just leave. She was more polite than I would have been about it. Unfortunately, this only set him off further, and about a minute later he made a huge mistake in saying “…you fucking monkeys…”
At that point, I stood up and said, “Give me back my fucking pretzels. You should never address women like that – you should never address human beings like that. I am ashamed of you, and I want my pretzels back. You deserve to go hungry.”
He threw the bag of pretzels at me again, and this time I caught them. The train door opened at 110th. He said “You little prick. Why don’t you get off the train and fight me?” I replied, “I’m getting off at 116th, can you wait one stop sir?” The women started rolling in laughter and applause as the man looked at me, startled, and ran off the train.
As it turned out, the women were getting off at 116th as well. We chatted about the event and exchanged pleasantries until we got there, and I thought about it the whole walk home.
New York Subways. Where crazy shit happens ALL THE TIME.
