Last night I jumped into a taxi on my way home and was delighted to notice that the driver was listening to a political talk show. The results of the Democratic Primaries in DC, Virginia and Maryland were due to start coming in so it was nice to know that I could stay up to speed. As he wove his way through the Manhattan rush hour traffic like a lunatic high on speed, he began to offer up his opinions. It is such a rarity for a New York taxi driver to have a conversation with someone with someone other than his hands-free, that I welcomed the distraction and began to chat to him.
He started off by asking me what I thought about Barack Obama. I told him that I really liked the guy and thought he had the potential to be a great POTUS. He agreed with me, and instead of stopping while was ahead, chose to go on and wax poetic about why he loved Obama so much. "Obama is a great man because he is not like all the other black people in this country. He doesn't go about causing trouble, he is a good man and I hope he wins."
As much as I like Obama, and as much as I hope he wins, I was incredulous at the nerve of this taxi driver, chauferring me, a black woman, telling me that he likes Obama because he isn't like other black people. Cheeky bastard. Never one to back down from a confrontation, I asked him "What exactly do you mean he isn't like other black people in this country? What are black people in this country like?"
He sputtered and stuttered as he rushed falling over himself to explain, "I wasn't talking about people like you, I was talking about the rest of the African-Americans, they are all trouble makers."
I gritted my teeth at the sheer obtuseness of this idiot, "So let me get this straight, in this whole country, Barack Obama and I are the only decent black people, and everyone else is to be classed as a troublemaker by virtue of the colour of their skin?"
He then began to feign ignorance claiming that he didn't understand what I was talking about. Luckily for him we pulled up outside my house and the conversation had to be cut short. The damage was already done though, and there was clearly no tip in his future. I considered reading him the riot act, but felt too weary to even bother engaging. I paid the man and waited for my change down to the last red cent. He told me how he didn't mean to offend me and apologised for any incovenience, but I was still saddened. Saddened by the fact that an Asian man, an ethnic minority in this country didn't know better than to make sweeping assesments of an enitre race of people. Saddened by the fact that he seemed to assume that his commentary on how Obama and I were okay was some sort of compliment.
Mostly though, I was saddened that at a time like this when history is being made and perceptions are being reshaped in ways we never thought possible, all this man could see is that Obama must be some sort of anomaly, some sort of fluke that does not represent the reality of what it is to be black in America. I was saddened to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Labels: decision 2008, obama, race
