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I’ve met plenty of people in my life, but have been lucky enough to avoid extended interactions1 with unpleasant people. And I suppose that those interactions were brief for a reason: who wants to be around the unfriendly? Of course, living in a big city in China, it’s inevitable to be pushed around and yelled at—but most of those are fleeting and easily forgettable.2 In the past, my parents were usually the ones who were left to fend off those aforementioned people as my brother and I safely watched on.3 However, now that I’m alone, it’s up to me to learn how to deal with them.
What brings me to write about this is a particularly distressing4 situation I found myself in this afternoon. I’m currently in New York for spring break, and my friend and I decided that we would explore the areas of New York we had never been in. For me, this was an adventure—New York is a lot like Beijing in many ways, and after staying in Boston for these past few months, it’s nice to be back in a city with the possibility of excitement around every corner.
Crossing the streets of New York has always been a great fear of mine—without any warning, you can easily be hit by a belligerent5 taxi driver or an absent-minded grandmother who really shouldn’t be holding a license anymore. I am always a stickler6 to the rules, simply because… well, there are better ways to die, aren’t there? This time was no different—as soon as I saw the WALK sign flash on, I carefully began to cross the street after looking both ways. A limo7 began turning, and I paused to see if he was going to let me finish crossing, and it appeared he was. But then he suddenly began coming at me without any intention of slowing down, and I panicked8. I quickly ran across but looked at the driver through the window to see how he could be so rude. He rolled down the window, sneered at me, and stuck his middle finger up at me.9 Shocked and enraged10, I yelled back, “Are you serious?” But he had already gone.
My friend urged me to forget about the incident, but I couldn’t help fuming11 with fury. My anger was partly due to the fact that I hadn’t been breaking any rules but had yet been punished for it and partly because I had had very little experience with unpleasant people. I suppose I was angrier than was warranted, but I couldn’t help but seethe12 at the horrible expression on his face as he had directed that rude gesture towards me. As a person who is normally short-tempered to begin with, I couldn’t help but get myself worked up over that interaction which had lasted all of five seconds.13
But the frustration soon wore off14 as I began to think about why this person took the energy to be so rude to a harmless looking Asian teenager like me. Was it racism15? Perhaps—but he was Mexican, another minority, himself. It could have partly inspired his crassness16, but I really doubted that that was the real reason. What could have possibly motivated this not-so-elite member of society to be so disrespectful to someone whom he had never met before? My thinking really began to get imaginative as I voiced my thoughts to my friend.17
Most immigrants have a dream. They dream of America—the country that is supposed to be filled with opportunity and fulfilled promises. For example, let’s take this limo driver. In Mexico, he probably had a hard life. Maybe he was a laborer, a factory worker, or a farmer, who knows. Maybe he spent the former years of his life saving up his money to fulfill his dream of going to the United States, only a border18 away, but with so much opportunity where maybe he could stop hurting his back and find a job where he could finally live a comfortable life and provide for his family. Perhaps he finally got across the border, maybe illegally, with the huge risk of getting arrested and losing everything. But it’s worth it, to get to the land of opportunity. And he finally makes it over, but finds that it isn’t all that he thought it would be. Here, there’s a stigma against him—Americans pride themselves on being liberal and accepting of all races,19 but they aren’t completely accepting yet. They still have a tendency to look down on Hispanics because of the suspicion that they’re illegal immigrants invading on the American land and consuming their resources.20 So he’s reduced to21 driving some rich American around.
No wonder he has a bad attitude.
Sometimes I always wonder about those immigrants crossing over to finally fulfill their “American Dream”, only to find that it’s far from perfect. I look at street artists, selling their sketches and caricatures for five,22 ten dollars, and wonder if that’s what they thought their future in America would be like. Struggling to sell at least one of their pieces, wasting a whole day sitting outside, and watching people walk by them without buying anything from them. The weariness23 and sadness in their eyes is hurtful to see, but you realize you can’t do anything for them but feel sad. And that doesn’t even do anything for them.
So, Mr. Driver, maybe you are mad all the time. Maybe you’re mad that your life isn’t what you thought you would be, maybe you’re mad that you have to serve the rich American jerks that treat you like dirt, or maybe you’re that you never got a chance to finish your education and get a job that doesn’t involve you degrading yourself.24 I get it.
But despite it all, there is never a good reason for poor manners.
Welcome to America.
1. interaction: 交流。
2. inevitable: 不可避免的；fleeting:短暂的，飞逝的。
3. fend off: 挡开；aforementioned:前面提到的。
4. distressing: 令人不安的，使人忧虑的。
5. belligerent: 好寻衅的。
6. stickler: 坚持……的人。
7. limo: 豪华轿车。
8. panic: 惊慌，恐慌。
9. 他摇下窗户，嘲笑我，并朝我竖起了中指（侮辱人的手势，是一种很不礼貌的粗俗表现）。
10. enraged: 非常愤怒的。
11. fume: 发怒。
12. seethe: 气得发抖，强压住怒火。
13. short-tempered: 脾气坏的，易怒的；worked up:〈口〉（对某事）非常不安的，激动的。
14. wear off:（疼痛或某种效果）逐渐减少/消失。
15. racism: 种族偏见。
16. crassness: 粗鲁。
17. imaginative: 富于想象力的，运用想象力的；voice: 表达，说出。
18. border: 边境。
19. stigma: 耻辱；pride onself on sth.:以（做）某事而自豪/得意。
20. look down on: 轻视，看不起；Hispanics:（尤指拉丁美洲中）来自说西班牙语（葡萄牙语）国家的人；suspicion: 怀疑。
21. reduce sb. to do sth.: 使某人沦落到做某事的地步。
22. sketch: 素描；caricature: 漫画。
23. weariness: 疲劳。
24. jerk: 〈口〉笨蛋，傻瓜；degrade:降低身份。