Posted by: kalidasbhaisaab October 17, 2016
racist guy kicked my car tire
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If you don't mind, would you be willing to share with us, in which State had you experienced this. So that I can generalize that State. I have a stereotype against some States. In that, I too, have experienced some minor infractions of these kind. I want to share my opinion and views and I would appreciate if you be the judge and throw in some of your opinions too. I agree with Vivant, above, in that she have beautifully described the summary of what can or what should be done, in your specific scenario.

As immigrants, these types of incidences, infractions and happenstance may not be entirely new to most of us. But somehow, I have come to believe it is rarer in NYC or Boston or San Francisco. I mean people, in general are rude in the cities but the biases are against stupidity not against race (I can be grossly wrong here). A NYC food stall man may yell at me, saying [Disallowed String for - No bad mouthing]cker, but rarely I have heard him cursing that I go back to my country. [Disallowed String for - No bad mouthing]cking, pork eating pig, yes but go back to your country, you stupid immigrant, no.
So during my consulting days, I had worked in NJ, MN, OH, TX and IL. I had differing experiences in these different states. Which is why my stereotypes are accumulation of my experiences living in those states, although briefly. Now I live in MA. In 2011, when I was in Ohio, this one day I was taking right coming right off of an Interstate. This ramp when merging with an inner street did not had a yield or stop sign. Basically you could slowly merge onto traffic. But I had stopped (completely halted) my car to the oncoming traffic from the left and was trying to merge with them on the right. A big ass Ram Truck came right behind me and honked my ass out. I could see in my rear-view, both the guy, truck driver, and his lady passenger were yelling and frowning. As I moved to merge to the right, as the traffic became thin, he passed me from behind speeding so as to pass me clearly and quickly. BTW, I was driving a Toyota Yaris. And as he was passing me by, he had opened his window and just beginning to curse. I immediately opened mine and showed him a big middle finger yelling 'Fuck You'. As soon as I did that, he slowed and stopped right in front of my car, right in the middle of a busy street, right off the ramp. He opened his door swiftly, red fuming with rage, and started coming right towards me. I had my wife and a lady friend in the car. I swerved to the left and ran my ass out of there. I stopped at a grocery store, five minutes from there. As soon as I parked at a safe spot, I called the local police (not 911) and informed about the incident. Thankfully, the lady friend had noted the Buckeye Plated (Big 10) Licence plate of his Ram. It was shining bad ass nice truck, though. I told the police that I think it was a road rage incident and also informed that I had stopped, although there were no stop signs and that I had only stopped because I was scared of ploughing to the oncoming traffic. Also mentioned to the police that I had said, fuck you and showed middle finger to that man, but I thought the way he stopped his truck right in front of my car and charged at me could easily have been an assault, had I stopped and had I also come out. I said, good that I fled the scene. The police told me that there was nothing they could do but in future, during such road rage incidences, do call 911 immediately. They said, they appreciated I fled the scene. I told them that my call was more like an FYI rather than a complaint. I believe, since I was in a rust belt country and that the Ram owner had never expected a Madhesi Bhai could possibly show him a middle right in his hometown, right in front of his lady. I seriously think he could have shot me, that day, had I also stopped there and confronted him. I don't know, maybe I was just a coward. Anyways, from that day onwards, I have seen hundreds of passing cars yelling at me for my slow ride, showing me middle finger for riding in left lane at 60 on a 65 MPH Highway, pausing 0.5 seconds when the light turns green, not yielding, not giving a passing space etc. I have kept my calm. I have been yelled at, shown finger to. Just yesterday a car started riding slowly in front of me (similar to tailgating but in front) because the driver was pissed that I was driving too slow. You guessed it. There must be something going on here. I am not in a freaking retired country somewhere in Florida. I am right in the middle of Opioid Country. People are smack dab in a hurry to go to the nearest gas station to buy that dutch masters. Why can't I comprehend that. So from that Ram day onwards, I have become consciously senile to all road rage confrontations. I have come to live in peace with my senior citizen demeanour. When people show me 'fuck you' sign, I pump up my stereo to Ira Glass's witty line in one of those This American Life. Here, there is this conjecture of perception and expectation. Had I not known that some people, though not in general, are merely pissed off by slow riders, by male IT workers with ungroomed facial hairs, by smelly arm-pits, by smelly foods eaten in open spaces, by saree cladding metro park joggers, I would have held on to my perception that everyone is racially biased against me. While true, that they are racially biased against me, thanks to some of the successes of this collective society, I do have a job where they value my inputs and opinions. Not sure how much this helped, but wanted to share my opinion.
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