Thursday, September 15, 2011

Anti-Semite Watch: #3

Dear all,

I've been a way for quite some time. With a brief exception of a posting a few photos celebrating America's victory over the No Football enemy, it has been over a year since I have chimed in about rap music, Milwaukee, movies, or everything else in life. And this is not to say amazing things haven't occurred in those four categories. But, dear readers, it is shameful, tragic, and heartbreaking to return to this website to report that once again the terrible scourge of anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head.
You must be thinking, looking at the news today that surely the Egyptians and Jordanians storming the Israeli embassies forcing the evacuation of Israeli diplomats is strictly a protest against Israel and such behavior should never be confused with anti-Semitism. But I'm not even speaking of that. No, this incident occurred in America the Great. The land of the free.

LOCATION: South 4th Bar & Café
Brooklyn, NY

Date: Sept 2. 11:54 pm



Description of Incident:

I met up with my friend Devin to have a drink. While I haven't had the pleasure of knowing Devin for too long, one can usually assume based on the quality of one's character that their friends will be of similar ilk. Devin and I drank a beer, watched some sports highlights, and soon his friends began to arrive. At first they seemed like a good bunch of people. I spoke with all of them, and they seemed no different than anyone else our age. At one point, they even ordered food and offered to share some of it with me. I was delighted. And not just because I was able to partake in their nachos, but because by sharing their food it made me feel accepted. It made me feel like I was one of the groups.

How wrong I was.

One of Devin's friends had a friend in from out of town. Becky seemed like a nice enough girl. She was from Chicago and we started talking all about the midwest and our times living in Chicago. She then told me where she was from. She named a suburb I was vaguely familiar with. I then asked her if that was near Des Plains, a western suburb. She said, no actually it's a southern suburb. I apologized and said, "I don't know why I thought it was near Des Plains. I guess I'm really only familiar with the north shore suburbs."

Her response, "Well that figures."
I was shocked.

I asked, "what, what figures? Why does that figure?”
She just laughed. And tried to act cute, hoping her sudden charm would erase my memory of our exchange. But I persisted, I wanted her to say it.
"No for real, why does that figure."
She only laughed more.
I told her that I knew the northern suburbs cause they were the ones closest to Milwaukee, and all the times I'd drive down to Chicago, I would see the exit signs for these burbs on the interstate.
After all, what other possible reason would a person ever have to think I would be more familiar with the north shore of Chicago than any other suburban area? But alas, it was to no use.
She laughed again and it wasn't cute at all.

As August Bebel once said, "Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools." I would add ugly to that.