I had the same type of experience on the 14 late one night. Problem is, I’m the driver. Kid gets on, giant pants halfway down his legs, giant T shirt…the standard outfit. Starts smirking and gently hassling me about the fare….like: “how come you can’t give me a FREE ride, dude…I just wanna go home… It’s cuz of my color, right?” He’s made no attempt to pay and is holding the line up. What’s more, he’s LOOKING for the confrontation, for whatever twisted reason. The young man happens to be black, I am a middle aged white guy. I’m not scared (yet), but I am concerned. We can’t just call the cops all the time ya know, or we’d never survive out here. I’m wondering if I’m going to have real trouble with this kid and one of us get hurt, maced, whatever, when a deep bass voice speaks up from the stairwell behind him. “Why you wanna mess with that bus driver, dude? That’s MY bus driver…..how come you wann mess with him? The kid turns and looks into the eyes of one of the largest gentlemen I have ever seen, also black, just like the instigator himself. He’s a regular on my bus, riding with me several times a week. “Now, you gonna pay the man so’s we can go, or you gonna make the mistake of messin’ with him some more?”, he rumbled. THe kid didn’t say another word. He turned back to the farebox, quietly dropped in his dollar fifty, grabbed his transfer, and walked to the back. The big man heaved himself up the stairs, grinned, winked at me while paying his own fare,, and said: “evenin’ _____. How you doin’ tonite? All I could do was grin back, flooded with gratitude…and a warm feeling that I had actually accomplished something I have been working for. Rapport with my passengers. We may come from different worlds and have totally different lifestyles, but it was nice to know we do to a degree “have each other’s backs”.

I’d have your back too!