Dead Is Dead

As a bicycle commuter I long for 2008; I wish those days would return.

2008 represented the "height" of our recession...and the repossession of thousands of rides. My commute by bicycle was never so nice. I didn't have to concern myself with four black guys in a $62,000 Escalade with $6,000 aftermarket rims feigning running me down on my Franklin Blvd. I didn't have to concern myself with three shirtless black guys in a Dodge Neon hurling insults (or whatever they were saying) at me while trying to get home.

No one had any money. No one was driving on Franklin Blvd. in the evenings. It was quiet. It was dead. And for a bicycle commuter, it was a little slice of heaven.

Today, a hot day by October standards, meant that a few thousand South Sacramento cars had their windows down because their AC hasn't worked since '07. Combine that with passengers and it's ripe to get either insulted riding a bike or to get shit throw at me by the passengers. Invariably, they are either 24-year old white assholes or 22-year-old black assholes. Haven't had anything thrown at me by any Mexicans or Asians. Must be a cultural thing.

And that's why I blog. It is most decidedly a cultural phenomenon. Why is it that Asian American guy's don't screw around with a white guy on a bicycle, while black guys do?

I'll be forever trying to answer that question on my blog. But, suffice to say, nowadays there are many more black meatheads out there than in 2008, out there giving me grief on my little bicycle. There are many more white meatheads out there than in 2008, out there giving me grief on my little bicycle. That much is true.

I don't enjoy having to "compete" with these people every day for my share of the road...but I do it, because I have a right to it, and most certainly, I've paid for it. And truthfully, I'm exposing myself to these people everyday by bicycling while I don't have to. I'm an affluent white guy. I could just as well say fuck it and commute by motorized vehicle like every other affluent white neighbor of mine. But I don't, and I don't for my own reasons.

I would rather not enjoy getting plowed down by one of these guys...but truthfully, it's not going to be one of them. Statistically, it'll be an Asian female mini-van driver that'll get me. Statistically, because they are the only ones to have hit me before. Twice. Some black guy feigning running me over -- he's just showing off as they are wont to do. An Asian female minivan driver...she's really a bad driver, and while there's no intention, it doesn't matter to a bicyclist...dead is dead.