Mass Appeal

I have a project for my mass media class due Thursday. There is a book I need to read before I can begin to work on it. Someone has had this book out from my school's library for like two months. Cough, asshole. Anyway, since time is winding down, I figured I should just go buy it. Thus, I ended up in Downtown Crossings on a Friday afternoon, which is always a bad idea. Crowds and I don't get along.

So, I was walking and I spot this group of shifty looking guys on the corner. They had to be like 15 years old. Which meant trouble for me, because those are exactly the kind of guys that always try to "holla" at me. I went out of my way to put people between me and them. Didn't work. One of the guys (let's call him guy #1) literally slides around a bunch of people and starts walking next to me. The conversation went something like this:

guy #1: hey, can I talk to you for a minute?
me: silence
guy #1: what's your name?
me: rolled my eyes and sighed heavily
guy #1: you can't talk?
me: No
guy #1: why not?
me: Busy

At about this point another one of the guys pulled up on my other side.

guy #2: esperate un momento, mami
me: silence
guy #2: you speak spanish?
me: No
guy #2: Oh, what are you then?
me: silence

Then another guy walked up. Maybe I should mention that guy #1 was black, guy #2 was latino, and guy #3 was white, because I found this multiracial, united, attack front somewhat entertaining. I should also note that I never stopped walking, so they were following me for a like a block and a half. Anyway, the conversation proceeded.

guy #3: word? she got a batman shirt on?
guy#1: yea, yo. she's gansta.
guy #2: nah, she's gonna fly away.

I don't really understand why the shirt was funny, but they thought so. By this point, we were in front of Barnes & Noble, so I opened the door and went inside. The boys lingered in front of the entrance.

guy #1: why you gonna go in there? cus you know we don't read? that's fucked up.

And sure enough, they would not come in the store. It was like in the movies when people run inside of a church to escape the bad guy. They really just couldn't cross the threshold. So I found myself in this weird position where I was like...Yes! They can't read. While simultaneously thinking it was a damn shame that they were ok openly admitting that to a stranger.

To those boys and everyone else who doesn't know: It is not cool to be stupid. In fact, it's just a facet of that crab-in-a-barell mentality that 'minorities' use to oppress one another. How can we ever hope to stand on equal ground with the people in power if we keep ourselves on a lower plane of knowledge? Think about it. Just think in general.