Sometimes White People…

I need to process an outburst from a young white male bike mechanic. “You were very difficult to work with”! In the Twin Cities, Scandinavian [the original settlers] aloofness, fear of open emotion, emotional people are a vice.

On February 13 I went to Free Wheel Bike so that my commuter cycle could have its annual service. This was months overdue. Based on prior experience coming In I expected a three-day turn around, at worst. But the Free Wheel cashier/mechanic said that the warm weather had led many fair-weather cyclists to do what I was. The mechanics had many more bicycles than usual to service So, the turn-around time would be in increments of weeks, not hours, nor days.

I made it clear that I was surprised, frustrated even angry. 

I was and am seasoned enough to know not to start acting out by swearing at the cashier/mechanic. Experience, and the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” had taught me that that wouldn’t’ve helped me, endeared me to him, or the other mechanics.

The remainder of the over-long conversation was pleasant (I thought). I had vented in a restrained way. More than two weeks pass.

When I came bade on March 1 to retrieve my bicycle by a text message telling me my bike was finished, I was told that one element of repair had been omitted. This news confused, frustrated and annoyed me. The cashier/mechanic from Feb 13 who was handling a different customer, told me, with some edge to his tone, “you were very difficult to work with”!

Minnesotans, with their sneaky, silent bigotry leave *it* an open question; “it” is “does my caramel color throw you, scare you? That it’s incongruent with me being articulate and smart? Whites don’t know how, or haven’t grown up enough to know how to receive sure, direct, and articulate Black men. This is oft misread as aggression, (i.e. uppity)

Either my memory of that original exchange or his differed from reality. I didn’t and don’t want to deduce something racial to his blurt, or memory. But he chose to remember the tense beginning of the cash register conversation. I remember having made clear after venting that I would be pleasant, expecting that that was what he would remember.

The young white man’s retort proved me wrong. I wonder what how much influence my caramel color weighed in this? With the Minnesota commitment to Scandinavian aloofness, and fear of adult confrontation dissuades most white from being candid.

I’m left to wonder, and choose to move past that, instead of dwelling on the outburst.