On this morning's train ride into town, a white girl in her mid-20s with an Obama button on her jacket got on our train and completely ignored this guy in the picture as he politely tried to get her attention. "Miss. Miss. Miss, at the door. Miss, standing at the door. Excuse me, Miss. Miss. Miss." She had headphones on, but he was raising his voice (not in a rude way) and he was waving his hands directly in her line of vision. A lot of people on the train were turning to look. It went on for several minutes until she changed positions so that her back was to him and she could pretend like she really couldn't hear him.Before I got off, I asked him what he wanted her attention for. He said he just wanted to buy her water bottle from her. Who knows if she would've agreed to the transaction, but the least she could do was acknowledge his existence.
Change we can believe in? More like the audacity of NOPE.
10 comments:
seriously? being an obama supporter means you're obligated to talk to crazy bag man on the train? wtf-ever. it's awkward enough to bump into an acquaintance on the subway.
yikes.
good thing you posted anonymously. your comment reeks of ignorance.
It was rude of her to ignore the man, but what does her being an Obama supporter have to do with it? There are supporters of ANY politician who we may not like on a personal basis...doesn't mean they are voting wrong.
This post was pretty much a joke. I don't actually expect all Obama supporters to behave as liberally as they vote, I just wanted an excuse to use my Audacity of Nope line.
There have been plenty of crazy people on the subway that I wouldn't think twice about engaging, but this dude was perfectly sane and a lot more pleasant than the girl with the button.
I can see why the immediate reaction from a girl toward ANY man, actually, and homeless, at that, waving in her face and insisting on her attention is to ignore him, even if it meant risking being offensive. I see mostly black men pulling the strategy of the "oh, excuse me" strategy for luring women into conversation, but when they are homeless and carrying trash, it can't be comfortable for a young girl to respond to this.
I'm sorry, but political correctness has moved many people into dangerous situations and I don't blame her for being as discreet as possible in her avoidance.
It's so easy to stand outside of a situation and presume how someone should have behaved, but it takes a little bit more comprehension to see beyond the knee-jerk reactions to just condemn people with self-righteousness. It's a very different perspective to watch this unfold from a distance than it is to have the person waving directly in your face.
Just something to think about.
Yeah, again, this post was mostly a joke. But as someone who was actually there, I can tell you that this guy behaved in a way that made him seem completely harmless. And the lengths that this girl went to to avoid acknowledging his existence were just uncomfortable. If she didn't want to get involved, she could have simply looked up and shook her head.
I believe you that he seemed harmless, but doesn't it strike you as odd that a completely sane person would continue to try to get the attention of someone who was obviously going to great lengths to ignore them? Would you do that? Especially when people have headphones on in the subway...a clear sign that they wish to block out the world and be anti-social.
That's a good point.
I guess the guy really wanted that water.
very sophisticated Ralph Ellison reference.
Look, she is 20 years old ( that is rather young for you to be making assumptions about her behavior) and the guy was obviously acting a bit weird. At 20 I would have ignored him as well. I am over 51 and would have done the same. I would have felt that he might have wanted to say something offensive and wouldn't want to put myself through it. Who continues to call someone over and over on a nyc train, when the other person is not interested. Has nothing to do with being a obama supporter. That is complete silliness.
The other thing is being a woman and espeially a young woman is no easy thing on the subway. There are men who are very inappropiate towards women on the train. That is one of the reasons I think it is unsafe for the city to lean towards having the subways unmanned.
Post a Comment