It’s a long ride from Coney Island to Williamsburg, where I’m staying. The girl knocks over her bottle. She gets aggressive with another passenger. She boy spends most of his time trying to calm her down, nuzzling in closer, making her giggle. But she seems to enjoy getting riled up–this long drunken ride, with someone paying attention her, with the whole compartment pretending not to listen and look, might be just her idea of fun. When I’m only a few stations away from my destination, I hear her say something about “getting back into the military.” “I wanna go shoot some sand-niggers,” she says. “That’s what we call ’em. That’s what I like to do. Shoot me some sand niggers. Over in … Baghdad. In…uh…Pakistan! ‘Cause I hate those people over there.” The boy tries to shush her a little, but that only makes her keep going, louder–daring anyone to react. She says it over and over again–this young drunk American girl, with her hot pants and her obvious troubles–how she can’t wait to go shoot “sand niggers.”
(Completely unrelated P.S.: I took a bit of a hiatus with the Arabist Review, but am back to posting now).
How I feel your pain. I remember the first week after returning from Egypt. ironically, it was the weekend of my 21st birthday. The ensuing culture shock (and their shock to Arab culture) was so painful, I was lucky it coincided with the drunkenness you described here. So, I was ironically you and that girl at the same time . . . if you follow.
There is some sort of a bug in the system. I tied to comment but it was not published.
I’m sorry you had to experience that. There’s not much I can do except for apologize and confront that kind of behavior in the future (if I don’t get stabbed or shot a crazy drunk person for doing so).
Are you not distressed that she may not have said these things out of ignorance or prejudice, but as a result of her first-hand experience with Arab culture?
Are you not distressed that she may not have said these things out of ignorance or prejudice, but as a result of her first-hand experience with Arab culture?
Are you usually this stupid?
“Are you usually this stupid?”
He’s the type that frolicks on blogs such as the fucktarded SandMonkey blog, don’t pay any attention to the hook-nosed Shylock.
I eat fried pig pussies.
do you not find, Ursula, that your mention of her hot pants was unwarranted? Because no doubt ignorant Americans are skanky…or skanky Americans are ignorant?