Was in the home stretch of my daily two-block walk from the house to the shop a couple of mornings ago, placing one foot in front of the other in the customary way, thinking about nothing in particular, when my reverie was suddenly interrupted by a large navel orange going splat on the driveway a couple of steps ahead. At about the same time I heard someone say “My bad, I meant to hit your head.”
A beat later the owner of that voice appeared from behind a parked car on the far side of the street. The lanky young black man, wearing a hoodie, tightly cinched up despite tropical warmth, was talking a mile a minute, saying things that were apparently directed at me that I could only intermittently make out. Voice neutral, I asked him to speak up so that I could understand him. He said “Call me [an n-word] again and I’ll show you what up.”
Now I didn’t recall having ever seen this fellow before, never mind having talked to him, never mind having hurled a radioactive slur at him. I responded, truthfully if non-gramatically, “I didn’t call you nuthin’.”His response was not clearly audible, but he appeared not to concur with the assertion.
He turned away and continued onward, moving in that slouchy, shambling way you sometimes see among certain type of young male. Every few steps he turned to hurl yet another taunt over his shoulder. A minute later he rounded the corner and disappeared from view, headed in the general direction of the homeless camp next to the bridge over Williamson Creek.
Afterward, I thought of the recent murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train in Charlotte by a deranged black passenger. The outcome was different but the ingredients were the same. Unhinged person full of race hate, opportunity suddenly presented, destructive impulse indulged. Had my antagonist thrown a brick instead of an orange, and had his aim been a bit better, I might have become yet another statistic.
Once upon a time this sort of scene was rare enough to be considered remarkable. Ten years ago it would have lit my fuse but good. But now it’s just the new normal.