Threats- Implied and Actual

A few years back, I was riding the subway in NYC. It was the middle of the day- I don't remember exactly what time but the train was full enough that all the seats were taken but empty enough to leave no one standing. I don't recall what I was doing or where I was going but I do remember that at one of the stops, a rather large black man dressed in street garb got on the train. I'm a local boy from Hawaii so I didn't really grow up with any preconceived notions of black people. When I first moved to California, one of my best friends was black and I spent a tremendous amount of time with his family because it was so much more stable than my own. In NYC, I began to notice a subtle racism that created an interesting dynamic between white people and black people. For example, the bouncers at most of the clubs, big or not, skilled or not, were usually black. I noticed that the white people in NYC were more prone to wisecrack at a large white bouncer than a smaller black one. Like it or not, the impications of this became quickly apparent to anyone paying attention or anyone used to trying to get a psychological edge like you must on the Street.

Anyway, this big guy waits for the doors to close then announces to the car that he could be out robbing, raping and mugging folks for their money. Instead, he was kindly and peacefully standing in the train asking for charity. You should have seen everybody digging into their wallets and purses to give this guy money. It was brilliant and diabolical what he tapped into. But I recognized a shakedown when I saw one and said aloud to no one in particular. "Please. This isn't charity. This is a shakedown." The gentleman heard me and tried to give me a hard look. I just smiled back. He went up and down the train and once he collected everybody's money, he stood over me and said with a crazy gangsta face, "You have any money for me, boy?" I looked at him very sweetly and replied, "Yeah. I have a thousand dollars cash in my wallet. But I'm not going to give it to you. You have to take it." We stared at each other for a few seconds and he broke contact and got off at the next stop.

I didn't think anything of this. Where I'm from, you don't put up with shit like that. But what I wasn't prepared for was the vicious stares I got from my fellow passengers on the train who viewed this incident. I didn't expect a parade but what I got was ill will and under the breath sneering comments. I'm not sure what happened but there is this tendency in the affluent West to put the appearance of physical security above all. It's the idea that currency can provide for greater safety than character. And when someone does stand up to a threat, that action is villified as uncivilized and such, once again proving that in so many cases, a good education does nothing but provide valid reasons for why you should NOT do the proper thing.

The Dannish cartoon thing is a no brainer. You don't get to use riots and physical intimidation to get your way. If you choose to go that route, you should not complain when the same tools of violence are being used on you. The West's combined cowardice and reluctance to act with any clear standards allow the rioters to continue in the mistaken idea that their's is the proper way to do business. We cannot tolerate such silliness. Fundamentalist muslims simply must grow up. Continued escalation will only result in a great loss of their lives. They cannot win. Eventually they will provoke our ire past our ability to control it. And I'm afraid that when that occurs, our ability to mend fences will becompletely irrelevant.