A Fight in Chinatown

About a week ago, some friends and I finished a delicious lunch in Chinatown and were headed back to the South Loop. For those of you that are not familiar with Chicago's public transit system, the CTA, Chinatown is literally two stops south from the South Loop, so about a 5-minute train ride at most.

Anyway, we got on the platform and waited for the train to pull up and as the doors opened, a group of about six guys were in brawl that moved onto the platform. Stunned and rather curious, I moved back in shock and watched to interpret what was going on.

As the fight unfolded, I noticed that the fight ratio was 5-1 and the subway train remained stalled and the doors ajar. The lone guy screamed and begged for help and eventually a woman from the train yelled for the assailants to get off of him. The victim was helped onto the train and the assailants ran off.

I later came to understand that the altercation took place because the five assailants were trying to steal the victim's iPad. Luckily, they did not succeed and for the most part, the victim is okay, and one of my friends called the police.

Typically, I would not share stories like this all the time because I think it could give people the wrong image, but this was important for the purposes of this blog. The assailants were young black men; the victim was a young white man. Even though I did not jump in to help (I regret that and even though this does not excuse my "bystander-ness" I was in shock for the whole time), I was rather irritated with the situation.

As a black person, I feel it is imperative for me show that I am more than my race and the diversity within myself to break down the stereotypes and misconceptions of black people (the main purpose of the blog, if you haven't noticed). Of course, this blog would not exist if there was not widespread ignorance within American society and in many places abroad, but also exist because of the black men that assaulted this white man that help perpetuate the negative stereotypes of black people.

These men are luckily a small facet of black people in this country. This image of barbarism is commonly applied to black people in American media, but is not the reality. This is what I want everyone to understand. More so, to the black readers of this blog, we need to encourage our youth who are engaged in this kind of behavior to understand that not only do they make black people on the whole seem barbaric, but they self-title themselves as hoodlums - a title that takes a lot of time and effort to remove from one's self. I personally do not care what people think about me because I know and understand the image of myself I portray and I really don't care who or what likes it, but one thing I have gained is respect from the right people who will get me to where I would like to be in life. If I was labelled as a hoodlum, I wouldn't have that respect at all.

So, please, spread this story to everyone you know so they can understand these two things:

• Not all black people are violent and dumb (because these boys were definitely violent and dumb).
• The way you view yourself will be the image you project to others, so make sure its positive to gain the right kind of respect.