Racism in Berkeley

I was on the bus today, returning from the labor day occupy protest in the city - which was pretty pathetic, really.

As the bus driver, driving down College Ave toward the campus, approached the stop on Alcatraz, a young man with a back pack on, was the wrong side of the street waving the bus down. The bus stopped for the light & the man ran in front of the bus, signalling for the driver to open the door.

The driver refused to open the door, refused to pull over to the stop, much to the young man's disbelief that was written all over his face and flooding his body language.

The young man refused to move away from in front of the bus and the bus driver threatened to call the police.

I was flabbergasted. I didn't know what to do. Of course the bus driver was an older white man, the passenger a younger Black man.

I rang the bell and moved to the back door, demanding the bus driver let me out. He wouldn't but picked up the phone to call the police.

The young man finally shrugged his shoulders and moved off, shaking his head. I got off at the next stop and walked back but he was gone. No police were there. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr