Brooklyn Playground

"well shut my mouth the woman said washing me this child got wings like a hawk
boys this is going to be a long song so you better take off your boots and spit"
Frank Stanford

Yesterday I was smoking a cigarette during my lunch break from work at Buffalo Exchange - leaning against a graffiti-covered building on Driggs St. in Brooklyn. I noticed a rock skitter by my feet and soon after a big piece of black plastic also ran down the sidewalk in front of me. I looked up to see a group of about ten to fifteen teenagers walking towards me throwing debris my way. Blown away by their audacity to actually throw things at a complete stranger, I just stared at them from my sitting position - they walked slowly by, almost every single one glaring at me as I glared back. Even after they had passed they continued to turn around and stare at me, as if this street was nowhere for me to be sitting.

It seems as if Brooklyn is just a playground for adults where the stakes are much higher than milk money and scraped knees - the bullies have become the "thugs" and the nerds the "hipsters". It's a strange and unsettling dichotomy - as if neither group wants the other to be anywhere near their turf. What's the basis for all this racist shit these days anyway? Every hipster out there has heard of TV on the Radio (a band comprised mainly of African Americans and termed "indie rock") and what about The Streets? - a white Brit who can definitely hold his own in the rap world.

You're black - who gives a shit.

I'm white - who gives a shit.

Unfortunately a lot of people do give a shit and those are the people who have their heads up their asses and can't think anything aside from what their parents or society taught them.

Turn your damn bass down, burn your Confederate flag - stop acting like you've got something to prove and just walk down the damn street.