2001-03-05 - 11:15:05

There is this after hours bar here called the Riviera. It closes after the other bars, staying open until anywhere from 5 until 9 in the morning. We asked the bartender what determined the time that they closed, and he said:

�As long as there are people here we�ll stay open, unless the people are EGGPLANTS.�

Innocently, naively, I asked him �What is an eggplant?�

He says, in a hushed whisper - �You know - BLACK PEOPLE.�

My mouth dropped open, I was aghast.

He went on to explain about how everybody knows that black people don�t tip and that they get black people in the club who pay for only one drink and then stay all night playing pool, and they don�t make any money off them. I can understand that a bar doesn�t want to be open when they�re not making money, but what he SHOULD have said was:�As long as there are people here we�ll stay open, unless they�re not buying drinks.�

But that�s not what he said. What he said was a veiled term for NIGGER.

The idea that people here in the big city in the year 2001 are still using derrogetory terms absolutely apalls me.

Like every once in a while I hear people refer to our public transportation system, which is called MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transportation A-something) as �Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta�. I could just scream.

What really pissed me off tonight the most about this is that I didn�t know what to say. I was so absolutely dumbfounded that I didn�t call this guy on it. He read the look of disgust on my face and moved away immediately, but still - I didn�t say anything to him about it. For that - I�m at fault. They say that silence betokens consent and so I certainly should have said something to him - but I just couldn�t process so instead I gave him the silent treatment. I vow here and now never to take the silent approach to this shit again.

Guys like him are the same WHITE MEN that insult women. I could tell, oh, i guess a MILLION stories right now from my own experience and from the experiences of my friends of shitty things men have said and done to women. But I won�t. Because these assholish things men do to women are so blatant and and what really got me tonight was the INSIDIOUSness of RACISTS.

I am so PISSED OFF.