Jerry Springer on a Bus

I want to tell you how I managed to start a race war just by being disabled. It's just too darn WTF not to share:

So I was on the bus coming home after taking a philosophy exam and I was sitting in the very back of the bus, which I usually do in order to avoid people with cell phone cameras trying to get video of "that funny crazy lady." Anyway, pretty normal bus ride until this black woman and her boyfriend enter the bus and the couple sit next to me on the big long bench seat in the very back.

The woman is very, very friendly and talkative to the other passengers on the bus and I suppose it was pretty inevitable that she talk to me. I was a little surprised that she was able to identify my neurological condition that causes me to twitch and bark as Tourettes. I was much less surprised when, following the identification, came the intrusive questions, including the rare, but not unexpected, questions about my disabilities and my sexual life. Anyway...

After this exchange I was feeling a little bit self conscious about my tics so I was doing my darnedest to not bark and, for the most part, I was more or less successful. I was more or less able to, with great concentration and fortitude disguise my barks as something else that I felt much more comfortable with. Eventually, I just couldn't keep up with it anymore and I let out a good, loud, series of high-pitched barks.

A couple of stops back, a white man entered the bus and sat a few rows in front of me, far enough in front of me where he didn't notice me until I barked. When I did bark, however, the real fun started: The jerk decided that it would be funny to start taunting me by howling like a wolf.

Naturally I found very offensive. ...and so did the black woman who proceeded to shout something, riddled with profanity, that there was only *one* person on the bus with Tourettes and that the person who was making fun of me was a jerk. After a few seconds she located the man who was causing me torment and proceeded to ask him what his problem was. To which he responded:

"What the fuck is your problem you black-assed nigger whore!"

She hit him. He stood up and started threatening her, calling her a prostitute and dropping N-bombs left and right while pantomiming and demanding lewd acts while her boyfriend and myself stood angrily trying desperately to form words. Things got very, very close to being very, very violent and I commend the two people whom I was with for their self-restraint.

Someone pulled the cord and the bus stopped. All three of us got off, we all had enough. I'm sure that if things had been a little different and that if we had not had the opportunity to disengage like we did, things would have been a lot different.

And that's how you nearly start a race war just by being disabled.

It was one of the most frightening moments of my life.