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American Culture Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles rant transportation

Woman on the bus.

I was on the bus today, on my way downtown to meet with one of my mentors for a holiday luncheon. The bus ride usually only takes about 15 minutes, so I zoned out for a little bit. After awhile, though, I noticed that there were more Chinese passengers than usual on this bus line. I watched a couple older Chinese women board the bus and sit near the front.

There was a Caucasian woman sitting right next to them; I didn’t know how long she had been there, but what I saw next really offended me. I guess the Chinese ladies had a bit of that “Chinese” smell about them (maybe they just came from Chinatown shopping?), because the Caucasian woman started to cover her nose with her turtleneck and act as if she were about to suffocate from the smell.

I was really offended by her blatant behavior and was tempted to yell at her “You can move to the back of the bus if the smell bothers you so much!” She was being so incredibly rude and offensive; if I were in her place, I would have either masked my disdain or just remove myself from the situation. It’s not that hard! It wasn’t like this woman was very elderly and needed to sit in the front of the bus; she was perhaps in her 40s, early 50s. She looked still very fit and youthful.

It just made me feel very disappointed in her behavior–I would have expected for a younger person to do something so immature, but not someone like her. If the smell of Chinese people bother you so much, then why are you here in the City?

Ugh, sometimes I wonder about society really.