INVISIBLE MAN

I left the hotel this afternoon and, under an undercast sky, started walking toward the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, at least where I thought it is, near the impressive multi-onion-topped Cathedral of Christ the Savior, on the other side of Moscow River from Hotel Rossija.

I took the bridge and walked to a restaurant I had seen the day before. I bought soup and some other stuff that you enjoy when you are really hungry. Afterward, I joined the line to buy coffee, when two women, one elderly the other young, passed me to study the menu. Then, when it was my turn to order, they proceeded to place their order.

Now, homey don't play that!

I go off when that sort of crap happens. I think that since I am black I should be a lot more visible, no?

So I got into, or out of, character, depending on what you really think of me. I understand very that the language can be a barrier so I depend on "attitude" to help send my message. I asked her if she didn't see me? I stated that racism was all about in this world! I pointed to my black arm and asked if that was the problem.

All this time she and the young woman are telling me to go ahead and order. Which I proceeded to do.

A similar incident took place at the Apple store in SOHO [meaning south of Houston Street (as in Howston and not Hewston) in New York City. This guy cut in front of me. I went in front of him, turned to ask if he hadn't seen me standing there. Before I said another word, he anticipated what I was about to get into and he asked me not to go there, said he was from Latin America, so I told him that Peru was one of the racist countries on the planet. That was such a lame explanation, as if el presidente Hugh Chavez isn't hated in his own country, Venezuela, because, like Simon Bolivar, he is of black and indigenous heritage!

The problem with being black is that slights to me cannot always be racist; I know I don't stand out in the crowd. But since I cannot read minds, I just consider the obvious. But I wouldn't change the color, a la Michael Jackson, for a quieter life.

Eminem speaks for me in one of his rap songs:

I am what I am


Patrick Barry Barr