Here is a taste of passenger life on a bus through my own experience. They cover the period from my junior high school days to college days. Some were pleasant, some were not. Please keep in mind...when I mention ethnicity, I am NOT (I repeat...NOT) making ANY sort of generalization/stereotype about ethnic groups and how they act. I describe the following people as who they were, what they did, and that is ALL.
1. Junior High School or early High School (cannot recall exactly): Three African-American girls were sitting at the back of the bus. I was sitting at the back as well. They were chatting up a storm. One of them looked at me and smiled. She said, "You are the prettiest Chinese girl I have ever seen." I smile and shyly say, "Thank you." I loved their compliment.
2. Junior High School : I was sitting at the back of the bus. There was a very rowdy bunch of African-American guys and one girl in the back as well who were around my age. Suddenly, they started to taunt and verbally harrass me, saying things like, "Are you going to go home and eat some rice?" One of the guys came up to me, all wanna-be-macho-like, and started waving his arms around, trying to seem more cool. He meanly yelled out with a smile and sneer, "You gonna eat some motherfuckin' rice?! Some motherfuckin' rice?!" And while this was happening, the other guys in the group and the one girl were just laughing their heads off as if this was so fucking hilarious and entertaining. I did not know what to do. I remained calm. I looked him straight in the eye. I showed no emotion. I did not say anything to defend myself. I glanced around at the other passengers on the bus, silently pleading with them to help me. They looked at me with no feeling. They were trying to ignore it. I was helpless. As he said these cruel and bigoted comments, I was wildly thinking Why are you doing this?? Why? Why do you think you have a right? After five minutes of this grueling verbal torture, he stopped and went back to his seat. After that, I think they left me alone. I cannot really remember what happened near the end. I draw a blank. Whenever I think about that incident, I fume. I get so angry. Curses plague my mind and spit out of my mouth. How I WISH I could have defended myself. I wish I could yelled back, "Shut the FUCK UP you FUCKING asshole. You worthless piece of shit. Get the FUCK out of my face!!" And I would of said it if I had more guts back then...if I weren't so scared. If this incident EVER happened again, that is EXACTLY what I would do. That group of FUCKIN LOSERS...they were such cowards...ganging up on me as they did...because they were in a group...because they wanted to be rowdy...because it made them feel superior to me...because they wanted to make a quiet girl feel ashamed, embarrassed, and humiliated. If I could do it all over...I'd fuck em up with my words. And yes, ever since that incident, I tried to avoid sitting at the back of a bus if there were a group of rowdy guys in the back. It just made me feel uneasy. I'd be like a sitting target. It's not really a concern of mine anymore being that I don't need to take public transportation.
3. College : There was this bus driver with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He always smiled and talked to me if I sat near the front of the bus. He'd ask how I was doing and things like that. I don't know...I always tried to avoid him. He seemed kind of weird...looked a bit sleazy. If I had the opportunity, I'd always walk towards the middle or back of the bus just to avoid striking up a conversation with him. And I also noticed that he never really made an effort to speak to other passengers (even female ones) other than me. I just didn't like him...weird vibes.
4. College : Just as these two African-American girls got off the bus, one of them said, "Hey!!! Look! She has eyes like Brandy (the singer and actress of Moesha). The other girl took a look at me, smiled, and said, "Yeah she does!!!" They then commented that my eyes were pretty. I smiled, said thank you, and then they got off the bus. About the Brandy thing...my eyes sort of looks like hers, but not really. In my opinion, Brandy has more Asian-looking eyes then I have. Giggles.
So, wanna ride the bus with me sometime??