I’d like to write about something annoying (if only brief) that happened Saturday. I was walking through Central Square on my way back from Chinatown and listening to music through my earphones when a man holding a binder came up beside me and started talking.

“Do you mind if I talk to you for a second?”

“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and smiling. I continued to walk and he followed.

“C’mon, can I talk to you?”

“No thanks,” I said, shaking my head again and still smiling.

“Please?”

Again a smile.

“What, you don’t talk to black people?”

I stopped and pulled my earphones off.

“No, man, I’m just trying to enjoy myself while I’m walking.”

“I can walk with you and talk with you at the same time.”

“Fine,” I said.

Then he stuck his hand out and grabbed mine and started shaking it.

“Hi. I’ve been HIV positive for two years, and I’m trying to get some donations—”

“I’m sorry,” I said, cutting him off. “I actually have no cash, I just spent all of it on my food.” I raised the smiley-face bag up so he could see. And it was true, my 3 orders of fresh spring rolls and 1 order of Vietnamese rice noodles with Vegan chicken cost $22 flat, and that was everything I had with me.

Without another word (though with a nasty look) he turned and walked away.

So I have several issues with this encounter.

  1. I strongly believe that everyone has the right to walk down the street in peace, without being harassed or bothered.
  2. No one should touch anyone else without their consent. In this case, an unknown person came up to me in what is a pretty crappy area and grabbed my hand.
  3. I don’t owe anyone anything financially. I do my duty paying taxes, and in the past have given plenty of money to people on the street, which I had no problem with at the time. But I no longer have the resources to do that, so except for my immediate family and the IRS, I have no financial obligation to anyone.
  4. Don’t bring race into an equation in which it’s not a variable. I didn’t want to talk to you because I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. The fact that you are black is irrelevant. I have kept plenty of black friends in the past, and when that’s the first card you reach for, I find it hard to take any claim of discrimination seriously (see the James Sherley reference in the last post as well).

Am I cranky or what?

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