Friday, May 12, 2017

5/12/17 Being The Right Color In The Wrong Place?

   Everyone tries to tell me this doesn't happen, yet Chubs tells me stories to prove otherwise.  I picked him up today around 3:55pm, meaning by the time I get there he has been hanging out for a good fifteen minutes or so.  Don't think this is all on me, he tells me all the time to pick him up at 4:00pm, so he can have the most time to hang out before all of his friends get picked up.  I hate arriving at or before 3:40, when the bell rings because it gets full of parents and dumb drivers, so I like to wait a bit too, it helps me avoid the idiots.
    Occasionally, Chubs gets questioned by kids that are up to no good.  There was the "no-neck" kid who wanted either his backpack or his "violin" (really, his saxophone), but the kid expected Chubs to give it to him.  There have been other kids who start talking crap to him too.  We have told him to go stand over by where the monitor is letting the kids get on the cars, but he likes sitting over by a little hill, where his friends and other troublemakers like to camp out at, much closer to the street.
    As soon as he got in the car today, he said I have a story for you dad.  I said wait, that's "No-neck, I bet?"  He looked out the back window and there he was, slowly plodding back and forth about on the street entrance, looking like an annoying slow kid, Chubs just said "yup, that's him."  "Anyways", I said, "what is your story today."  He said he was sitting there minding his own business when three eighth graders came and surrounded him.  He said they were looking out for another kid who was saying that Chubs was beating him up earlier.  Chubs said he remained calm and just said I don't know who you are talking about but I did not do anything to anybody.
    As soon as he was surrounded, two of Chubs buddies came over and stood behind him to see what was going on.  We have had both these boys spending the night, and that is exactly what I expect when I feed boys is that they will have Chub's back when he needs it.  One of the older boys then weirdly asked him "you're Mexican, right?"  Chubs said "yeah..."  At this, the kid said "good enough for me." and they ran off. 
    This was all over by the time I got there, so I didn't scare them off.  I don't know if this was racially motivated and it just happened that Chubs looked white from afar but when you get closer, he's a brown bomber.  Maybe they were looking for a kid who was by himself and the fact that he had buddies step up to support him made them back off, or maybe they were the "do-gooders" and once they got their facts straight, realized that Chubs is not the fighting kind and left it at that.
    As I have said before, the school is 85% Hispanic, even if the kid doesn't look it, there is a high probability that if you are in that school, you are a tortilla lover.  I just might have to start picking him up earlier to avoid all these shenanigans.

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