Imagine this.
The first time you heard him you were walking back from your campus' local AMT with your banana milk steamer, and as you approached the turning you heard it, a voice so soulful it made the the little hairs on the back of you neck stand on end. A Stevie Wonder classic, but to you it could have been anything. Trying to balance your hot paper cup and your humungous bag you fished out some loose change for the busker. You rounded the corner and you entered his view, a young black man looked up at you and the music stops abruptly. "It is because of stingy sisters like you that black men go for white women!"
All you could see was his mouth moving and yet you didn't register that he was actually talking to you! When it finally clicked your eyebrows arched up to the sky and in that split second you decided you didn't want to say anything to him and you droped the change back into your bottomless bag.
Today was the same only you had a coconut milk steamer, you were in a bad mood (not fasting as you were wearing the red tinted goggles) and your shoulders tensed up as you rounded the corner. This time he had a guitar and was singing some other Motown classic. As you passed him he stopped singing but kept playing his guitar and yelled after you. "You take one step to Allah and two to me!" You slow down thinking you aren't hearing right, after all the backing guitar music makes it sound like some introduction to a song. "Just cos you're wearing that doesn't mean....." You stop, and contemplate walking back and finding out what the hell this little bugger really wants. Knowing yourself and the mood you're in you'll want to cause a scene. So sensibly you keep walking.... well stomping really.
6 comments:
That's so wierd. What has he got against you, do you think? If he plays on campus, maybe you could report his abuse?
No hun, he isn't on the campus, plus I don't really feel harrased by him. It's more a feeling of curiosity and annoyance... Do I provoke such a strong feeling in people just by sight? The silly bugger probably got kicked to the kerb by someone that looked a bit like me or something
One step towards Allah and two steps towards me? Why do I have a feeling that has some other meaning apart from being mean.
I dont know? what do you think?
Becoming more like him. Dehumanized in a way, afflicted by choices he made in life. I dunno sis, I am one of those people who believe that everything you encounter in your path is there to put a dent in your life. If I was in your shoes I would probably would have walked back and bought him a meal and probably coaxed an explaination out of him. Then, again I can understand with your red stained googles you probably would have had choice words to exchange. I guess that phrase and the one you halfway heard on your way when he said just cause you wear...... makes you think he was looking for a scapegoat but you could also see it as a wake up call to how most of us see homeless and beggers, as societies lowest of the low. The stereotyping we have of them is reinforced by society time and again.
Let me quit my rambling. Don't pay much attention to me unless I struck a cord.
omg thats so mean hes playing for money right? well then good for u
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