A few days ago I was verbally assaulted by a group of kids. They were between the ages of 10 and 12 probably and had a ring leader who was the same age but physically bigger than the rest - the head bully. They decided I was fair game for singling out and I was assaulted with a barrage of foul words and not-so-subtle threats. What did I do to deserve their wrath you may ask - I was driving my car and stopped so they could cross the street in front of me. The head bully thanked me for giving them the right-of-way with words that no child should even be aware of their existence - "f***ing white bitch"...."f***ing c**t".....more "f****ing bitch"...just while he and his lapdogs were crossing in front of me.
Apparently I made the mistake of making eye contact with the kid with the golden tongue. My second mistake was rolling said eyes, an action eagerly pointed out to him by one of his lackeys. The head bully faced me, put his hand into his pant's pocket, slowly drew it out again and raised his hand toward me - the hand was now shaped and positioned like a gun - and said to me, "you dead, bitch".
At that point, there was a break in traffic and I was able to drive on. These kids screamed obscenities at me until I was out of earshot.
The experience left me a tad shaken but I found the entire incident quite disconcerting. I was left with the impression that they were more angry with my gender than my race even though they used street language for both. I was left wondering where they had learned such misogyny...such disrespect. The answer is glaringly obvious: they've learned all this behaviour from watching and hearing and seeing how the male elders in their lives treat the mothers of these kids and their sisters and maybe their grandmothers.
So like I said, I was left with a feeling of consternation but they didn't manage to hurt me. After all, they were just kids....right?
But then earlier today someone did manage to hurt me with words. He didn't resort to gutter-speak like the kids did but what he wrote to me was certainly the adult equivalent and so much more cutting than any child could manage. The kids were strangers...he is someone I had come to respect and admire. The kids' attack confused me and will be eventually forgotten....his attack saddened me and will stay with me for a long time.
Words, eh? They can make you soar and they can cut you in half...
