One day, not long ago, a young white man got on a MARTA train at Philips Arena. He was dressed in business casual work attire, and looked the part of what some might call “yuppie scum”. This man noticed that the clientèle seemed rather poor and downtrodden, the people that the Herman Cain's and Sonny Perdue's of the world despise, and the kind of people that the Mark Taylor's of the world have trouble remembering except in campaign speeches. In fact, this man himself found it easy to live just another urban yuppie life in Atlanta while hardly ever thinking of the people on the train he found himself on.
The white man had decided to stand rather than sit since he was getting off the train at the next stop. Just then, however, a black boy who might have been fifteen years old asked the white man whether he would like to sit in the empty seat next to him. The white man, without thinking, politely declined. Then the boy, who the white man noticed seemed to be wearing ordinary teenage baggy clothes, said “Oh, you don't want to sit next to a black person?” The white man was surprised by what the black boy said, because the white man liked to believe that he was liberal and inclusive despite being, at root, yuppie scum. The white man sat down next to the black boy, but he didn't forget what the black boy had said.
3 Comments:
Sorry, maybe I'm just slow, but I don't get it. What is the point of this parable?
Why is the white man "at root, yuppie scum"? Is it because he wears business casual work attire? Or because he "noticed that the clientele seemed rather poor and downtrodden"? Is that meant to imply that he's judgmental? What if they really were poor and downtrodden?
If the guy didn't feel like sitting down, is he supposed to feel guilty for not choosing to sit after the black kid asks him to?
Maybe I'm overlooking something obvious, but I'm not understanding where the white guy went wrong in this scenario.
So Benson, when did you become Cynthia Mckinney?
I felt the same way as the previous blogger. Sorry, but I rode MARTA to work each for two years in a business suit and would hardly consider myself "yuppie scum" (I didn't realize that holding a job, being white, and looking nice defines you as yuppie scum).
There were numerous instances in which I was in the same boat. I had a short MARTA commute and would often just stand. I never had that situation happen to me, but if I did, I wouldn't feel one bit of guilt. More than likely, I would think that person was a complete moron and an embarrasement to their own race.
Just an example of how blacks have been conditioned to respond to the slightest slight as some sort of racial conspiracy.
And yeah, when did it become "evil" to be "Yuppie Scum"?
They are the people that keep this country running.
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