Thursday night was another opportunity to serve on the canteen. The weather was nice, and the team of ladies who contributed their time and effort were much appreciated.
The chow we served smelled hearty, and our customers complemented the flavor and warmth. Towards the end of our serving, I could see a guy walking towards us from maybe 40 yards away. A couple of our regulars also noticed, and started whispering "Narc" and "uh-oh, here he comes". They were chuckling under their breath, but I had no idea why.
We were down to our last plate of food. One of my team handed it to me so I could carry it towards the guy. I got within 20 feet or so, looked him in the eye, called out to him in a friendly manner (or so I attempted) and held out the food. The walker looked past me/over me and kept walking towards the canteen itself.
Being well over 6 feet tall and well over 200 pounds, I'm not an easy guy to walk over. I wasn't directly in front of him during his approach, but near enough to where to overlook me one would really have to make a concerted effort.
He continued towards the back of the canteen, and I continued following about 5 yards or so behind him. He got to the canteen and asked one of the ladies for a plate of food. Another of the ladies on my team told him I saved the last plate for him. Those other regulars (who earlier had been whispering) told him I had a plate for him. I told him again I had a plate for him. None of us used threatening tones.
He finally turned and accepted the plate, but still couldn't/wouldn't make eye contact with me. I was a bit put off, but didn't think much of it for long. We were done serving, and I moved on to clean up the grounds around our area. Our final customer went off 30 yards down the sidewalk away from us, out of earshot, past the front of the canteen.
Two of the whisperers came over to me at the back of the canteen and said, "don't worry about him. He just doesn't like guys like you". Guys like me? "Yeah, you know. Brothas." So, we ended up having a quiet 5 minute or so conversation about racism in the homeless community. I was truly enlightened and more than a bit surprised.
I'll freely admit, in the year and a half or so that I've been doing this, I didn't give much thought to the idea that some of our customers were biased against African-Americans. When the weather is pleasant, our serving time feels like a communal atmosphere. As folk would spread out and eat, it almost seems like a large picnic.
Also, I wasn't dressed to the nines. I actually was mismatched - grey warm-up pants and an oversized dark blue hoodie. Maybe the guy thought I was homeless as well.
I can be pretty naive, even at my present age. Usually, our customers are quite civil while we serve, and some go out of their way to be friendly and approachable. Given that our customers are a cross-section of America, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
As we wrapped up and drove off, I had to admit once again to myself that our customers are as varied as snowflakes. Each one is as unique as folk in any other community. It's up to me to be prepared for virtually anything.
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