Your Thoughts, Please

[farrarfan1]

Doug are you wanting this thread to die?

[dragster]

Racism is EVERYWHERE!!!

[Grifterwithafunnylittleha]

Hey Dougertins,

I'm very thankful to know you are alive and got away from those brick/rock wielding thugs.

I can't say anymore right now without regretting my uneditable hatred.

Randomness befuddles sensibility. Deny their power over your state-of-mind.

The Devil is alive and kicking. Unrelenting evidence surrounds.

Grifterwithafunnylittleha

[TinyElvis]

You guys crack me up. *MAYBE* it was racially motivated? If this same story involved a few white kids throwing shit a black kid, you would all be "disgusted" and "outraged" at the blatant racism.

Hell.. maybe it wasn't racially motivated. Maybe that just read a few of Rudy's posts on jf.net.

[farrarfan1]

Doug glad you survived what sounds like your first encounter with street violence. At the very least it was a racially motivated random attack for the fun of it. It could have been an attempt to disable you and then rob you. Possibly kill you. Throwing a brick at a persons head could probably prosecuted as attempted murder. Since they chased you that leads me to beleive they had robbery or at the very least more injuries in mind for you. I'm going to avoid the political stuff (gun control, welfare state that breeds this type of environment etc) and simply congratulate you for surviving a violent, possibly life threatening battle. I think only you can determine how this affects your outlook on a number of issues.

[Talus]

Doug, that sucks. I hope your head is OK. Humans are violent by nature. In groups it just gets worse. For whatever reason, they saw you as weaker than them and they reacted. I don't think black or white had anything to do with it. That kind of thing stays with you, bu the sooner you put it past you, the better off you will be.

[half-n-half]

glad you are o.k. this is a disturbing experience.

are you black or white? or are you 1/2 & 1/2? just wondering.

[Trellis]

That's very tough. I don't know if you can make any sense of the situation or find any reason for it because you don't have much to go on. It could have been about you -- your race, your bike, your gender, your class. It could have had nothing at all to do with you -- they could have dared each other to attack the next guy who came along, or even just thought you were someone else. There are infinite possibilities.
What is completely and entirely in your power is how you respond to it. You already did one thing very well - you got away. Now that you're safe, how you read the event, and how you fit it into the rest of your life, is up to you, and not up to the fear you felt, and not up to them, or anyone else.

[grainpulp]

Dude, are you exaggerating or did you really get hit in the head by a brick? That would suck. Well, it sucks even if you didn't get hit in the head... I'm just sayin'.
Anyway, glad you survived. Maybe it was your race, maybe the basket, maybe just that you were a dude riding a bike, or maybe just simply bored teenagers... no matter which way you cut it, it sucks to be harassed like that.

[sturgeongeneral]

DC, it sounds as if you were fortunate that nothing worse happened to you. However, an experience like that can definitely play havoc with your psyche. I constantly struggle with my attempts to apply a liberal perspective towards human nature. As you have probably heard before, a liberal is simply a person who has not been a victim of a crime. However, I know it is not that simple. I think that is why music is so important to me, i.e., it definitely helps to soothe the inner beast when attempting to deal with the foibles and frailty of human nature. Personally, Will Oldham in his work, I See a Darkness, summed up my struggles with human nature when he sang,

".....And many times
We've shared our thoughts
But did you ever, ever notice
The kind of thoughts I got
Well you know I have a love
A love for everyone I know
And you know I have a drive
To live I won't let go
But can you see it's opposition
Comes a-rising up sometimes
That it's dreadful imposition
Comes blacking in my mind

And that I see a darkness ...."

Good luck in working this out.

[gdavis5446]

That sucks Doug. I went to Junior High near there and used to get fucked with all the time. Mostly black kids, but I 've been messed with by drunk white guys just as often. There are plenty of assholes out there of all colors. Maybe that was there corner to hold. Hang in there.

[ShuckOwens]

I read this as serious, DC. The more I think about it, the more I think that it would not have mattered what kind of bicycle (basket or not) you were on... chances are a group of teenage guys, no matter what their skin color, would have messed with you in some way. I'm sure they tried to outdo each other... one flipping you off, then another upping the anty yelling, leading to eventual throwing and pursuit.

[Still Be Around]

Getting a little drunk here....gonna have to get back to you tomorrow. Damn Bigfoot.

[keith21]

Yeah, you're probably right. They might not have hit you if you were black. Racism is a part of every race in the civilized world. There are black racists, just as there are white, latino, arab, and asian racists.

[dcarter]

I'm sincere and serious. For what it's worth the basket is black metal. Sort of cage-like. But when they started picking up construction debris, I was too far away for them to tell it was a female bike with a basket. I apologize for the thread. Obviously I have not been taken seriously.