“Sit In The Back of The Bus, I want this Seat”

I grew up in the city of Chicago in the fifties and sixties. When I was going into the military, I saw the west side of Chicago burning as I returned my then girl friend back to her home. It is still hard to believe this type of discrimination would happen today as it happened then . . . and it is. Yet it is even harder to believe a lone white man would demand a seat from a black woman and tell her to move to the back of the bus in New York City. The African Americans kept their cool even with an obviously crazy old white man making racists demands on them.

which begin after the man asked her to move:

BLACK PASSENGER: Why?

WHITE PASSENGER: “Because the back of the bus is over there… I mean the black of the bus is over there.”

BLACK PASSENGER: “Excuse you?”

WHITE PASSENGER: “Yes, I want that seat.”

BLACK PASSENGER: “Why do I have to go to the back of the bus?”

WHITE PASSENGER: “I want that seat.”

BLACK PASENGER: “No, I’m not getting up cause you’re being… no… you’re being racist.”

His comment after everyone on the bus objects to his demands??? “This is why we need Donald Sterling.”

Many of us had witnessed what we thought to be the death of this type of overt and bold display of racism decades ago. You have to wonder whether recent societal views towards discrimination have created an environment for the reemergence of this type of public display. This person does not appear to be a skinhead or a KKK member and appears to be just an average male on a bus.

With a court that looks at discrimination as something which is in the past and laws are no longer needed; with a large segment of our political leaders and a greater portion of the population claiming they have the right to discriminate in day to day business or otherwise activities on race, sexual orientation, or gender; with an economy skewing productivity gains away from the majority of the population; We are heading to another point where there will be another city and economy burnt. We are squeezing the low income and minority population as never before and sneering at them with our Donald Sterling threats.

HT: FirebrandProgressive and Crooks and Liars