Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a hard battle
To the "worker" at the Tinseltown McDonald’s. When you questioned me about why I was asking management to evict an aggressive man from the restaurant, it wasn't because I – as you suggested – provoked him by coming across as "superior.” It was because he was verbally threatening a man for talking loudly. I have seen this man for years and I know he has a condition where he talks loudly.
I said to the aggressor, “If you just leave him alone, he will quiet down.”
The fact that the aggressor then chose to see me as a white colonialist worthy of a beating because I was on “his land” doesn't excuse that he was threatening your client and now me. When I calmly said to the man “You can say what you want, but if it is violence I'll call security and have you removed," the aggressor got more threatening and started moving in on my corner seat. He was yelling loud enough to scare other patrons in the line. At that point I gathered my stuff and called the management who got on the phone.
For you to then make a judgment based on my camera bag, my Whitecaps scarf, and the fact I looked middle class to you does not give you the right to decide that somehow, in your Marxist/Freirean interpretation of socialist hierarchy that some assumption of my white privilege was the root of why the aggressor was getting violent. Talk about victim blaming.
The reality is: No matter a person's mental state, race, or heritage nobody has the right to verbally abuse and threaten anyone in a public place. If they do, they get a time-out outside, escorted by security, where they can vent without harm. If I threatened people in a restaurant myself that eviction is the least I would get as well.
This way of dealing with threatening people isn't a colonialist territorial assertion of white privilege and classist hierarchy on my part. It is a safety issue; you reverse racist busybody!
Your socialist failure to recognize that fact in your earnest advocacy for the many street people at that McDs is going to get someone hurt; when you keep trying to be peace maker and confront those who take appropriate action to notify authorities. You are dangerous.
You then needed to thank me for defending your client from harm. How duplicitous. No I didn't shake your hand. Next time I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and see how you ineffectively deal with it. I'll make the witness report after someone gets bashed.
-Stephen Emery
All rants and raves are the opinion of the individual and do not reflect the opinions of Westender. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity and brevity, so please keep it short and (bitter)sweet. Email your rant or rave to [email protected]
