While heading down Clinton Ave, I passed by a woman and a young boy dressed in a school uniform plaid. Near them, about six feet away, was a girl wearing a skirt of the same plaid as the boy's tie. The girl was obviously the woman's child, as much as was the boy, but she was off by herself, closer to me as I passed and she was speaking aloud, rapping really:
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you." Break. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you."
She couldn't have been more than eight, and you'd figure a mother six feet away would not only tell her daughter to walk closer to her mother, but also to not be uttering the mother of all curses while walking up the street.
It only bothers me that the kid's mouth was so filthy because it's a sign of the rampant disrespect prevalent in lower-class, urban, predominantly black enclaves. I would never have dreamed of walking up the street spouting fuck yous in the presence of my mother, nor if I were alone ... and I was a pretty poorly behaved kid. There was still a sense of respect, though ... a right time to be bad, if you will.
Now, there's no discretion. It's a 24/7 dis-fest, and we're all its targets ... those of us living in this unfortunate metropolis.
Yesterday, coming home from hockey, I overheard a woman in my neighborhood keening "This ain't no place to live! This ain't no kind of place to live in!"
She was talking about Bed-Stuy, or maybe about New York in general, but either way she's right. If anyone wanted to study the human animal, this is the place to do it. The only smart New Yorkers are those with sense enough to have left.
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