Ok, so I' m driving home from work a few minutes ago and this big blue Suburban pulls up next to me. The passenger side window rolls down and a large, bearded caucasian gentleman of southern decent and obviously low intelligence (a.k.a. redneck) screams " WHITE POWER!" laughs, then rolls up his window.


Now, in my 32 years of life this is the first blatantly racist thing that has ever happened to me. There' s always the subtle things, but never anything overtly hateful. This was my reaction:

At first there was the initial shock. " omg, did he just scream at me??"

Then there was a brief panic of fear. Images of KKK lynchings, etc. I grew up in Memphis (we shot Dr. King) and now I live in a suburb in Mississippi( the KKK still publishes a newsletter in this state), so it wasn' t hard for my mind to conjure up all kinds of horrendous situations.

I got away from the trucks a quickly as I could as soon as the light changed, then took a sidestreet, constantly checking my rearview to see if they followed.

Then, logic set in. I realized how impossible it would be for them to actually get me in my car. I calmed down pretty quickly after that.

Now, I' m not really sure how I feel. I know (I hope) that idiots like that are a rarity, but still, they' re out there.

The stupid thing is, he was taking a huge risk just by saying that. It' s almost 11pm, and I was just outside Memphis. People get shot for less around here. I don' t have a gun, but how did he know that? Hell, I' m not even the " gangsta" type but I know where I could get a gun right now, in less than half an hour.

It' s like some people enjoy being the cancer of society, just waiting for somebody to extract them.


Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had ever experienced something like that. If so, how' d you react?