To black guy in a black car (Dunstans Road, 5/9/11 6:20am)

[NowAndHere]

To black guy driving black car who threw plastic bottle on me when I was walking my dog towards Dawson Heights:

Being white, having short haircut and (occasionally) wearing bomber jacket does NOT making me racist or neo-nazi.

You have full right to see the world in whatever way you want but if you take any action basing on your observations and stereotypes you are fully responsible for it. Attacking someone on a street, even if only with empty plastic bottle, congratulations, in my opinion makes you an asshole.

I personally doubt you will have courage to post your apologies here, what I hope is someone knows you and will pass my message.

[jumpinjackflash]

Did he shout at you as he did this?

[Loz]

This bloke in the car sounds like he is fighting racism with... um... racism? What an idiot.

[northlondoner]

General yobbery or racial profiling on his part ? Sorry this happened to you ( was not me by the way! ) Interestingly on the rare occasion someone is yobbish towards me it's quite easy to think "is it cos I is black." In fact that was the case when I was in lift with very coked up aggressive white guy at posh kensington venue on Saturday night. Curiously he was already in the lift and actually standing in some blood when I got in , so don't know if he'd already decked sonebody. Naturally the lift went down, up, then down again before disgorging us - making him even more agitated.

Was his yobbishness towards me racially motivated? Dunno . Got the hell out of there!

[zeban]

The guy was an idiot full stop. Sorry this happened but does it really warrant a thread on whether or not he threw a bottle because he has a chip on his shoulder? I'd say no. There are many assholes in this world. He was one. Move on.

[candj]

People start threads for all sorts of reasons and the op started one in the hopes he would communicate something to the idiot he met this morning. Not terribly nice to tell someone their thread does not merit starting. You are right there are many assholes in the world.

[Frankito]

Can you be sure he intentionally threw it at you in some fit of rage...? I'm not sure that's altogether a healthy way to look at the situation.

Yes, throwing litter is criminal however assuming it's because you is white and he is black, not sure I get it. When you say he 'attacked' you, what does that mean?

NowAndHere Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> To black guy driving black car who threw plastic

> bottle on me when I was walking my dog towards

> Dawson Heights:

>

> Being white, having short haircut and

> (occasionally) wearing bomber jacket does NOT

> making me racist or neo-nazi.

>

> You have full right to see the world in whatever

> way you want but if you take any action basing on

> your observations and stereotypes you are fully

> responsible for it. Attacking someone on a street,

> even if only with empty plastic bottle,

> congratulations, in my opinion makes you an

> asshole.

>

> I personally doubt you will have courage to post

> your apologies here, what I hope is someone knows

> you and will pass my message.

[Alan Medic]

I think telling anyone to 'move on' is really patronising.

[StraferJack]

Move on

(was I the first?)

[Marie81]

People on this forum can be really mean and I?m not just talking about this thread, telling someone to 'move on' is indeed patronising and unnecessary.

NowAndHere: I am sorry this happened to you.

[intexasatthe moment]

Nowandthere - I'm so sorry this has happened to you .

If it had happened to me ,I'd be in shock .

How would any of us like having a bottle thrown at us ?

Hope tommorrow is a better day for you .

[StraferJack]

Why is telling people to move on (key word coming up) necessarily a bad thing? Moving on is a good thing

If the ignorant mare behind me on the bus last week "moved on" instead of phoning every other mare in her contacts book about being disrespected over some perceived slight about her shoes, she would be happier, I would be happier, the whole bus would be happier

Moving on is Good

[NowAndHere]

@Frankito, yes, I am sure it was done intentionally... in my personal opinion I was judged basing on my clothes: boots, bomber jacket, short hair - I must be an EDL member, right?

I do not treat this as a huge problem, it didn't poison my whole day, it was just upsetting.

Especially as about twelve years ago, being still in Poland I was (literally) attacked by a bunch of neo-nazi boneheads just because having long dreadlocks, and generally punk outlook I didn't suit their imagination of a True Pole, now, when I am roughly still the same guy just I look different someone throws litter at me considering me one of these guys - "is it ironic?"

[Loz]

This is now reminding me of the funeral scene in the IT Crowd...

[StraferJack]

Loz Wrote:

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> This is now reminding me of the funeral scene in

> the IT Crowd...

Splendid shout

[MissNoodlesHats]

i heard you were walking a poodle ...and he threw it at your dog but missed.

[Betterat50m]

"Moving on" is a good thing to do, however being able to "Move on" sometimes requires a person to speak about there experiences. Which is what now and here has done and by doing so I hope he can "Move on" To the twat who said this is not a place to voice such issues perhaps it is time you "Moved on"

[MissNoodlesHats]

having said that , and looking at your previous posts its a shame it was not a brick that hit you straight in your gutless .....cashews

[zeban]

MissNoodleHats I don't know what your problem is!

I'm sorry NowandHere, I wasn't meaning to sound patronising and I do sympathise, I'd hate for someone to do that to me but I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that it was because of what you looked like and it was that I had the issue with, not that this happened to you or that you wanted to post about it.

I'm not saying you were wrong, it just seemed abit random that you brought this up but now you've explained what happened to you in Poland it makes more sense. I hope you're ok.

[RosieH]

I might be being daft, and if someone threw a bottle at me from a passing car, I'd be frothing with rage so you have my sympathies, but I still can't grasp any obvious racial motive.

To my mind, your outfit smacks as much of Old Compton Street as it does of the EDL. Maybe he was homopphobic.

[Tarot]

Or just a low life littering up the place .

[binary_star]

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I might be being daft, and if someone threw a

> bottle at me from a passing car, I'd be frothing

> with rage so you have my sympathies, but I still

> can't grasp any obvious racial motive.

Exactly what I thought Rosie... did we miss something??

NowAndHere, maybe he mistook you for someone else, or he could just be a bit of a c*nt and would have thrown it at anyone? What made you decide it was because of your appearance?

ETA: Sorry this happened to you, I would also be fuming if this happened to me and if I thought I had half the chance to hit his car in time, I would have thrown the bottle back.

[Ridgley]

So sorry to hear what has happen, I do know where you are coming from a similar thing happen to me in Barnes a few years ago a group of white guys in a car threw eggs at me as I was waiting at the bus stop I won?t even repeat what was said as well. So I don?t understand why some people on this thread believe that it can?t be racial.

[l.scott]

lool.

ok im not laughing at the fact you got a bottle chucked at ya, but what I do find amusing is that you got a race motive out of it, came to EDF (lol just realise that's my electricity supplier..noob to the forum), posted a thread title "To the Black guy in the Black car", and about your not racist because off your appearance.

Now I understand ones appearance doesn't tell ones character, and risk getting stereotyped. But for you to jump on that action like that. Maybe he knew you and doesn't like you, maybe you were walking past a bin at the time and he tried is luck? maybe your dog scared him one day and de decided to take it out on the owner without getting bitten, point is... to get to the racist motive is amusing.

[Fabricio the Guido]

This is a brilliant line of thinking about intentionality and race.