The seat not taken has made me agree with Wideman's analysis of the situation that took place on the bus. Having an empty seat majority of my bus rides would cause me to rule out certain instances on why someone wouldn't chose to sit next to me which would then lean toward the fact of skin color. Although I am white, I have black friends and I have no reason to not sit next to a colored person on a bus. There are racist people in this world that would judge a colored person enough to chose a different place to sit, but I would not use that against anyone. For Wideman, he just ruled out all the possibilities and reasons why someone wouldn't sit next to him and it turned into there was no other reason other than his skin color in his mind. He has the right to believe or not believe that his color is the problem for others.
If I were to ride a bus daily to and from work or even on a short trip through town, I would sit by almost anyone. Although there are people I'd prefer not to sit by, if there was only one seat left, I would chose to sit there no matter how uncomfortable it would make me. I am the type of person that is too nice to really speak my mind and will worry of what someone will think just like Wideman did. If I were to chose to stand instead of taking the last seat available I would feel just as terrible as I would if I chose to sit at the last available seat.
I agree with you and Wideman. I also have black friends. Last month I sat down next to a black guy and he refreshed me on his history. So I looked at this reading more deeply. I guess I just don't think about little stuff like this that much.
ReplyDelete