Hostile Interaction
by: Alex Blackstone

There's a man in my Intercultural Communication class that has sort of isolated himself from the rest of the group. He's pretty quiet, he sits in the back, and he only speaks unless he truly believes what he is saying (which is a good trait to have, I guess.) He's sort of developed the image of an "asshole" by making clear to everyone his ideology, which is rooted in something that I imagine is somewhat sensible, but lost on us because his lack of skills in the articulation of thought causes him to say things when he really means the opposite. Either that, or he is one ignorant sonofabtich. Please note that the following quotes are taken out of context:

"I am proud to be white. If you don't like it, fuck you."

"I don't see why our country stresses acceptance of other cultures. Why should I have to practice tolerance to another culture when I can't have the privileges that minorities do? [i.e., "white power" without seeming racist or other organizations/clubs/petitions that focus on the empowerment of Caucasians]"

"I shouldn't have to be sensitive to minorities. In Hawaii, there is a holiday called 'Beat Haolies Day' in which the natives beat up white people. And this is going on in America, a white nation. That's fucked up."

"We shouldn't let a sexist religion like Islam be practiced in the United States. It's immoral and wrong. How can we pretend that these people have religious virtue when they treat women so horribly? How can we let this go on?"

And after a response from a Muslim woman in the class, who stated that she's never had negative experiences as a woman and that the treatment of women is
"more likely a cultural aspect than a religious one":

"No. It's a sexist religion. We shouldn't let people practice it."

And, my personal favorite:

"Why don't we just nuke Iraq already?"

Everyone in the class manages to hold their tongues and participate in discussions without shooting him down or calling him an ignorant douche, which I would have liked to do on numerous occasions. His comments do, in fact, further conversation. Let's just say the class isn't too fond of him, but nothing has ever escalated because we, after all, are each entitled to our own opinion.

Today in class, we're getting ready to watch a video and the professor is talking about our activities for the day, when the aforementioned pseudo-white supremacist storms in, throws his stuff on the floor, and marches right up to my teacher in a fury. This is surprising and somewhat scary, as this man has always seemed hostile, but reserved, and this instance seemed slightly out of character, even for him. He went off on some angry tangent that seemed entirely unprovoked and unwarranted.

"You wanna dance, you racist bastard? You wanna go? Fuck you man, do you have a fucking problem?"

He then rips off his jacket to reveal a plain white T-shirt with the Star of David drawn on it.

"Do you have a fucking problem with Jews? Huh?"

Akinde says calmly, "No. My father was Jewish."

"Fuck you man, you're a fucking racist. And I want my paper re-graded, too, you fuck."

This has to be staged. This is going to freak us out and end up as a discussion of their errors in Intercultural Communication, right?

"You and fucking [insert name of Nation of Islam member whose name escapes me at the moment, here] are fucking racists. Fuck you. What's your problem with Jews?"

Still calm. "I agree with you. He was a racist."

The dude sort of hesitates. It's now apparent to me and everyone else in the room that he came here looking for a fight and Akinde isn't giving him any ammunition. He then singles out a kid in the class and asks him the same question.

"No," he says, “I ain’t got a problem,” He huffs and turns back to Akinde.

"I heard a fucking toilet flush, sounds like you just lost a friend. Huh? How's that for racism? You wanna go?"

He really looks like he's ready to hit someone.

"I'll take this outside, right now. Fuck you, you racist bastard."

And Akinde says nothing. Finally, the guy leaves.

"You're a fucking loser. I'm going to report you. You'll be lucky if you have a job when I'm through."

The next twenty minutes of class is spent discussing what possibly could have provoked his behavior and whether or not it should be reported.

This same person sort of chastised a woman in class on Friday and called her out for "trying to sound virtuous," but no one retaliated, there was no confrontation, and the class ended on a somewhat positive note. Even then, I am certain that the Jewish have NEVER been mentioned in our class so far. He isn't even Jewish.

Something must have happened in the past few days that have caused something to stew in him, because he had an agenda when he walked into class today. That entire speech was thought out. But what the hell was on his mind? What was the cause? What the hell was he talking about? I always thought that this guy was a jerk off, but I never thought he was violent.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and think maybe he was just having a bad day, but that sounds naive, does it not?