Bad Driving and Racism

The other day I was heading down State Route 94 when I got behind the thing you see in the photo. The vehicle, such that it is, hugs the centerline and that means if I want to pass it I have to either dart in and out of the other lane, which I am not about to do, or I have to drop back a half mile or so, where this photo was taken.  The speed limit on this road is fifty-five, the vehicle, such that it is, in question was running closer to forty-five. The places that are safe to pass are very few and far between.

The driver of the vehicle, such that it is, might have been completely oblivious to the situation he had created, or he might have known about it and just not cared, or he might have been doing it out of malice.

I've run into racists who span all three of those categories. The out of malice racists are those easiest to spot, just like bad drivers. I suspect that in both cases, what we're dealing with are people who have very little means of self empowerment, and only through their antics behind the wheel, or by their declaration of superiority, do they feel as if they matter at all. Like the moron on the centerline who is there to keep anyone from getting ahead of him, he also hampers his own travels. Incapable of getting anywhere fast, his only prospect of future is to try to hold others back as well.

The second category are those who realize they are bad drivers but simply don't care. There are so many other people out there who drive poorly it really isn't worth the effort to do anything better. These are the people who will sit there and listen to the office loser go on and on about how the blacks on welfare are dragging this country down and not point out that the office loser is getting all his information from some pill popping right wing diatribe who makes a living preaching the gospel of hate to office losers. While these drivers aren't actively trying to get other people killed, their apathy is just as dangerous. Every someone cuts them off in traffic is a sign they must behave in the same manner, because if it happens to them they feel they might be lacking if they prevent it from happening to others.

 You might question how someone could be a racist and not know it, just like you might wonder how on earth the drive of that vehicle, such that it is, might not realize he's a death trap waiting to happen.

The best example I can give you is a man I worked with a while back named Darcy Evans. Darcy was a very nice person, very kind to anyone he met, and he would be the first person to tell you that he didn't have anything at all against blacks. He didn't mind working with them, he didn't mind eating at the same table with them, and he even liked some black music.

Seems like an okay guy, right?

But he refused to let his kids have black friends. His logic, such as it was, went like this; blue birds don't hang out with red birds so black people ought not hang out with white people. In Darcy's mind, equal but separate was equal. Like the truck on the centerline whose driver simply doesn't see himself as a hazard, he is nevertheless dangerous as he goes on down the road.

Darcy liked some black music, but he though the song by the Black Eyed Peas, "Where Is The Love?" was a racist song because it mentioned the KKK. Blacks, Darcy reasoned, were prejudiced against whites if they sang about the KKK. The context of the mention was something he never took into account because it never occurred to him that it should be.

The guy in the vehicle riding the centerline, unless he crosses that line, isn't breaking any laws. Darcy isn't breaking any laws by refusing to let his kids have black friends. In fact, I suspect quite strongly that in the end, by trying to train his kids that black children are to be avoided, he's actually setting himself for some very odd interaction once they are old enough to date. Like the man riding the centerline, Darcy may not see it coming, but that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen.

While all of this may be very nice, cut and dried, and black and white, the reality of the situation is that most drivers aren't always either good or bad drivers, and most people exhibit various degrees of intolerance at different times. Have you only a couple of tickets in the last few years? How many times have you seen someone of another race and had that knee jerk reaction to who and what they might be? No one can claim they never tried to beat out a yellow light before it turned red. No one can claim they never speeded. So how many of us can claim to have never had any thoughts, were they spoken aloud and in public, might have dammed us as a member of one of the three categories I have listed?

The important thing about driving is to try to remember that you share a road with other people. It doesn't matter who they are, or what they are, or how they act, they are still your fellow travelers, even if you pass them for only the very smallest of a fraction of time. At worse, you might be stuck in traffic with them for a while. Don't let the bad habits of other motorists get you. Slow down. Never wave with only one finger. The habits we cultivate when we are alone will be those we reveal when the traffic is at its worse. Your tolerance for other drivers is expressed on how carefully you consider their travel along the same roads all must travel.

I would very humbly suggest this metaphor might get some good mileage.

Take Care,

Mike