Rosie's ching-chong comments

[HejiraNYC]

Okay... my apologies in advance for kicking this contentious thread back up again... but I thought I would share a little bit of my "day-in-the-life" with you...

So yesterday I was walking down Bleecker Street minding my bidness, plugged into my iPod, etc. I passed one of those bodegas selling cheap silver jewelry on the sidewalk to tourists, and a black, seemingly homeless man was standing out front grinning. And for a nanosecond I glanced over when he glanced at me. He smiled and said "Happy New Year," while, of course, holding out his change cup. I replied tersely, "Hey, you too," as I passed him. Then all of the sudden he starts shouting to me at the top of his lungs: "Hey, you know karate, right?" Oh great... thanks for the humiliation.

I had already passed him and pretended not to hear him since I had my headphones on. My immediate gut reaction was that guy was an idiot. But why did he single me out? It's one thing if we were in some backwoods town where minorities didn't exist, but this is NYC for chrissakes! Or maybe it was some indirect compliment that I looked tough enough to kick some behind? (and if I had a nickel for every black man that asked me how much I benched... ). What if I had fired back with something snarky like "well, you know how to braid hair, right?" Would that have put him in his place or would it just make me look as stupid?

Of course this isn't the first time I've been subjected to this, but definitely the first time in NYC. It's the 21st century, y'all; it's time to lose the playground mentality, mmmkay?