vicarz | So this black guy hit me on the metro

On the way to artomatic, I got on a crowded metro train and had to push past a rude black dude. He was in a construction outfit, and was near the full-entryway leaning on the pole with his back (blocking the way). He was not a threat - he was a short-like-me skinny guy who was just getting a salty sprinkling in his hair. His posture reminded me of an older guy I worked with, who used the "angry black man" trick with frequency (for instance, sitting on the outside seat of an airplane and glaring at everyone to try and not have anyone sit beside him).

So I said excuse me, barely, and nudged past the bully. Yes bully - even if you're not a sizeable threat using social norms to annoy people and get away with it because "confrontations are bad" you're still pushing people around. To my surprise he "tagged" the back of my shoulder, like you would jab a friend. This was no friend, so I turned and walked up to him. I tried not to look amused, sized him up in more detail, found him absolutely no physical threat unless armed, tried not to smile, AND nudged my self to deal with the situation without resorting to violence if at all possible (around then I notied a lot of tourists with children in the mix too, reinforcing a sort of non-cussing civility code).

I don't know what I said, if it wasn't just "Really?" it was close to it. He then complained that I had just pushed him, nearly knocking him over (so he's not pretending to infering he is a physical threat, combined with nonaggressive body language...in fact as soon as I've turned I see that "How do I get out of this looking cool" issue in his demanor). So I correct him and say "I said excuse me," to which he responded "I did not hear you. APOLOGY accepted." Ok now I was smiling because it was funny, but I tried not to be rude. I wasn't going to let all that silliness slide with no response, so I just pointed "Well, it _is_ a bit unusual to stand leaning up against the pole (so nobody else can use it you dick, not said) but...maybe you're tired." He nodded his head. And...we both rode our ride pretending not to look at each other. When I got off (before him, and by the way the rest of the ride while he hogged the pole he moved quickly to let everyone by, which now included office people and kids) he said to have a good one, I replyed "You too."

Weird. I just really don't like bullying behavior, and while I don't just run around belting people (and I'm MUCH more sensitive to try and find a non-physical way to address things, or hints of physical acts), I still have no problem calling someone on shitty behavior.