I am a Motherfucker

I decided to do the "park and ride" commute to PSU this morning. I took the max to my Senior Capstone: African Children. It's a study on the poor treatment of African refugees. The teacher, Sam Giola, inspires great topic discussion and allows the class to get involved in the community. So far, it's been a great experience. The class discussion got me thinking about the racism inherent in our schools and in our society. As a class, we discussed Jonathan Kozol, inner-city schools, no child left behind, community service and a range of other pertinent topics. On my walk back to the max, I continued to ponder the subject of racism and how badly it has crippled America's education system, among other things.

As I walked up to the max top I saw some commotion and heard some bad noise coming from a crowd of people. I could hear someone yelling. As I got closer, my suspicions were confirmed: another asshole trying to start trouble. A grown man of 45-50 years with a muscular build and a pontytail was the troublemaker. He was a racist with an attitude problem and a tough guy complex. This guy was ranting and raving about how America was going down the tubes "because of the foreigners." He pointed at a bunch of Middle Eastern international students who were waiting to catch a bus and started calling them "towelheads" and "sand niggers." It was absolutely surreal. There were at least 50 onlookers in close proximity and a hundred more around the courtyard. Most of them looked on in horror to satisfy their morbid curiosity. Most of the onlookers were white, so they felt no immediate need to offer help since the anger wasn't directed at them. Nobody said anything to this guy. At first people either pretended not to notice or were too scared to challenge his racist views. The Middle Eastern kids said nothing in return to the slurs being thrown at them. They just smirked and tried to preserve their dignity by stonewalling him. I respected their attitude. It wasn't long before this asshole took things to the next level. He got right up close to the Middle Eastern kids and screamed, among other things "ALLAH ACKBAR!," "ARE YOU GONNA CUT MY HEAD OFF?," "CAN YOU EVEN HEAR ME?" "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" This verbal abuse lasted about 15 seconds before some students started voicing their opinions, mostly quietly to their friends. This murmuring got the asshole's attention. He began to walk around and eyeball people from the crowd, looking for anyone who would challenge him. A young, small-figured female student standing nearby made a quiet comment to her friend and the guy heard it. He started moving towards her aggressively, forcing the girl to back up in fear for her safety. By the time the guy got close to the girl I was already on the move. I dashed between him and the girl and grabbed the guy by his jacket and threw him headfirst into the street. He tripped over the lip of the curb and hit the ground face-first like a sack of Russet potatoes. His head collided with the steel max track. He laid there for about 2 seconds before he started to move again. He slowly peeled his face off of the gravel and started to get back up, trying to preserve his crooked image. The wounds on his face began to appear. The blood welled out of the fresh wounds on his face: from white to pink to red. Blood poured down his forehead and cheeks out of various deep gashes. As he began to pick himself up I told him to "stay on the ground." He didn't listen. I told him again but this time he was already aggressively rising to his feet, still looking for a fight. I had no choice but to give him a return ticket to the concrete. I swiftly drop kicked him directly in the face. The guy reeled in pain. In one final act of anger I kicked his full cup of coffee all over him. The scene was over so I left before the police showed up.

I believe in free speech. That guy had the right to say whatever he wanted to. Until he began to act threateningly towards innocents, I had no intentions to act violently. But when things got ugly, I took control of the situation: for better or worse. I take no pride in the unfortunate turn of circumstances. I regret having to resort to violence. In that same token I would have regretted what would have happened to the middle eastern kids and the small-figured girl if I hadn't stepped in. Ponytail Pete was on the lookout for blood and (thanks to me) the only blood he ended up finding came from his own face. Just for the record, I won't stand for anyone making people at PSU feel uncomfortable because of their race nor will I stand for unprovoked violence toward women. Not on my motherfucking watch. No matter now controversial this seems, I stand by my decision like I stand by my love for oxygen.