Sara and I went to the American Museum of Natural History today. There were some things I liked and others which were disappointing. The hardest part was negotiating the halls that were teeming with screeching children and MadMax-like strollers driven by parents that seemed to be on the brink of a psychotic break.
The subway rides there and back proved to be equally interesting. On the way there we were surrounded by a woman who seemed to be quite young (late teens, maybe early twenties) leading a gaggle of young children: five in total. The oldest being a girl with dark curly hair, maybe six. Then a boy, perhaps five; another girl three or four; and then two children in separate strollers. All the children had olive color skin and dark hair, except the youngest boy in one of the strollers. He was the standard for nordic-looking. I am not sure what the story there was, but the woman also looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.
On the ride back, things were uneventful until a young African American male, wearing headphones and carrying a mini iPod, came marching down the car. As he came closer to us, I saw from my peripheral vision that he was leering at me. He stopped just past me and he began to hurl insults aimed at me, but disguised as though he were singing rap lyrics that were playing on his iPod.
At the next stop, he stepped on and off the train, continuing to throw insults around. At the very end, he wished all us "white devils" a good day.
I wondered why he acted that way. What was his reason for provocation? Boredom? Frustration? Real anger? I will never know.
Then I thought, am I a white devil?
No, dumbass, I am a Mexican devil. Or perhaps a Mexican-American devil. Or maybe I am...
Next time we go to the Natural History museum, I will have to look for the white devil case and diorama.
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