it's too early in the morning to deal with racism.

i've been quite alert this morning, which is rare. it usually takes me a good couple of hours before i'm coherent enough to be a nice girl to others, but today, it happened within just ten minutes or so of waking up.

it's always good when this happens; it's an omen that i might just actually end up having a good day.

i can't say that the day has started well for at least a few people this morning.

during my commute to the office this morning, despite my unusual level of mental alertness, i was still a bit wrapped up in my thoughts and in a daze as i maneuvered my car through the low-income neighborhoods of the city to get to work. i was alert enough only to be aware of the traffic signals and such, but my mind was on other things.

that's why i didn't notice, while stopped at a particular intersection, that the stoplight before me had turned from red to green. all i was vaguely conscious of was the fact that there were three or four tweenie black girls crossing the street before me; because they were still walking across the street, from my left to the right, i presumed, without looking up at the light, that it was not safe for me to proceed across the intersection.

but out of the corner of my eye, i saw the car to my right lurch forward. it was a large, old jeep driven my a middle-aged white guy, whose blond hair was pulled back into a long pony-tail at the nape of his neck. i then noticed that our light was green -- but the black girls crossing the street were only half-way across, and still taking their time to get their asses across the street. they must've started crossing the street even after the "don't cross" light had been lit for them.

this happens quite a bit in the ghetto. people just walk willy-nilly, whenever they feel like it, even during rush hour.

the white dude wasn't having any of it, though. he started lurching his car forward impatiently, waiting for the kids to cross, seconds after our light had turned green. two of the kids passed in front of the car unscathed. a third yelled at him, "watch it, mr. ugly car!"

it was an ugly car.

he narrowly missed hitting the third girl, hence her yelling.

then the slowest, fourth tweenie girl crossed in front of him. and this time, the white dude shoved his front fender at her. the front of his car actually touched her and made her stagger a couple of steps backward, but it was more of a nudge than a shove. the tweenie girl smacked her hand on the hood of the white dude's jeep. "watch it, nigga!" she yelled. and then she yelled something else. you could tell she was angry (hell yeah! i would be, too!) but also frightened, despite her bravado.

i was aghast by the white dude. doesn't that count as assault and battery? not only that, but with a deadly weapon?

and i wonder at the racial implications, if any. am i reading too much into it? perhaps it's too easy to read "race" into it because it was a white dude and four black kids taking each other on. at the same time, i'm sure he would've acted differently if it were a couple of cute white girls taking their time across the street, though. in fact, he might've even encouraged them to walk even more slowly so that he could enjoy the view.

so i thought that was pretty fucked.

regardless of whether our light was green or not, one of the golden rules of driving that i was taught by my driving instructor, dear old mr. newbold, was that, no matter what, pedestrians have the right of way.

i gave the white dude a dirty "wtf" look as i passed him.

i don't care who you are, and i don't care what provokes you. you don't go around pushing tweenie kids, black or not, around with your fucking car.

that's messed up.