[quote]angry chicken wrote:
For the record, I am caucasian of Italian and German descent. The topic at hand (IMHO) has less to do with class or race and more to do with status. I grew up in Baltimore City and for the first 10 years I was around Greenmont and 33rd, which anyone from the area will attest to, is a predominantly black area and you still would probably think twice before parking your car there even today - back in the 70’s there were Black Panthers and other gangs running all over the place looking for trouble. We then moved to Hampden, near Falls Rd and 36th street (it is nicer now, but back in the 80’s it was all white trash and the heroin hub of the city).
I saw both blacks and whites exhibiting the EXACT same behavior. All that little stunt is, is a ploy for status. You walk slow and if the guy in the car slows down, you pulled his card. If he has balls or the willingness to start shit (which in the city can escalate real quick to something that nobody wants) then it hits the fan.
Most of the time, the car will just slow down and keep going, which means that the guy walking “stole” a little status by doing so in front of everyone at the intersection, while the guy in the car really didn’t lose much cuz he kept driving and no one was really paying attention anyway.
Then you have those few rare occasions when the driver honks or yells at the guy, but this is an almost certain recipe for confrontation. I have actually seen a guy draw down on an offending “honker” and was like, “what, Muthafucka? what you got to say now?” while pointing the gun at the guy’s girlfriend. And that was a WHITE guy! Compensating? probably, but he definitely won the “status exchange”.
Inner city is inner city, no matter what color you are. If the person walking slow is in your way, I always just slow down for a minute and give way. It only takes a second and avoids any unwanted trouble (unless I’m out looking for trouble, which is a whole other topic and is something I haven’t felt the urge to do in years). If he needs status THAT bad that he has to “take it” in such a contrived way, then I say let him have it. He obviously doesn’t have anything else to live for. And people with nothing to lose are unpredictable at best and downright psychotic at worst.
On another note, I have noticed that the trolls have been “pulling the race card” a bit more frequently in the past week or so. Let’s not feed that bullshit, guys. I know it’s hard to resist calling someone an asshole or a racist when they are ignorant, but at the end of the day it’s a waste of time cuz this is the interwebz, after all. [/quote]
Angry Chicken FTW!!!