THE SURREAL LIFE
I’m just getting in the door this evening. I had something really surreal happen tonight that hasn’t happened to me since 1987, I got called the n-word to my face by a white person. I’m shocked too. I get called the n-word by black people on a daily basis and a number of them are elected officials. But what’s so bizzare is that it wasn’t being called the n-word that was so weird, but how it happened.
I had just gotten back downtown from teaching and decided to hit the Columbia Club for a couple quick cocktails and then go back to the house and call it a day. While there I ran into a couple good buddies and we decided to go over to Nicki Blaine’s for drinks. One was black (and an investment banker) and the other white (who was a lobbyist). While walking along the circle we crossed paths with ne’er-do-well who looked like a cross between the Fonz and Gene Simmons when he was really strung out on blow.
After the man got about 20 feet way from us he yelled “look at those n——!” My friends and I all looked at him and then each other and in a moment out of Blazing Saddles, my black friend and I looked at each other said ,”was he talking to you?”
The ne’er-do-well shouted something else and walked around the corner onto Market Street. The three of us went to Nicki Blaine’s with very puzzled looks on our faces, made a few jokes and then had our cocktails. My investment banker friend and I chuckled that we pay more in Social Security than the ne’er-do-well makes in a year, so I guess in the end we did get even, But, I have to say it was a very surreal moment. Even more surreal than the time I was mistaken for a male prostitute near the new library.
I’m not even sure why I decided to write this down. I guess just to prove that it did happen. Welcome to my world.