Comments on: A Kenyan Tourist, an Ethiopian Cabbie and Race in America

By: modern sage

modern sage — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:17:22 +0000

It is more of a survival instinct than racism.I have lived in Washington DC for many years and do know that, the streets can be mean.Many cab drivers have been found dead in their cabs with bullet wounds to back of their heads just for a lousy few dollars or whatever the case.So i am sure that better “safe than sorry” is the rational here…better pay a fine…and be accussed of perpetuating racism, than be found dead, a statistic.I used to get mad when the cabbie behaved that way,,until i myself got robbed then i understood.Most of the cabbies have become street smart and are better at evaluating bonafide riders from thugs but it is not easy.At night it would be hard to pick a black person in an American city.It is just the same as putting fiber glass partitions in some banks, a security precuation.That it.Not all black people are thugs or robbers.Infact majority of them are extremely positive people.But there are a few bad apples there just as in any country.There are also plenty of white criminals too.

By: Michael M

Michael M — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:22:25 +0000

If I were Clara Nyamou, I would be writing the story after a little bit more investigation on the matter. I would’ve asked Kenyan taxi drivers too before writing and I would’ve tried hard to know the crime rate and statistics and I would’ve asked if taxi drivers hate money that comes from black people in America.

‘We the x tribe are better than the y tribe to British, French, Belgian, Portugues people etc. etc. …it is the y tribe which is bad not us the x tribe even though we look some how alike…’ How much expensive education is wasted on some writers who think of one thing and one thing only and that is to please ‘the viceroy’, and never for their own people, only instigating the y tribe to write nasty stuff about the x tribe and then…? Some bad habits that make us ashamed of being Africans sometimes shouldn’t be imported to USA.

By: Gemtuzumab ozogamycin

Gemtuzumab ozogamycin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:09:28 +0000

some how when it comes to equality foreigners hold america to unrealistic standard. Prejudice is a fact of life and will always be around in a heterogeneous society. Ethiopia: Amhara vs. Oromo. Kenya Kikuyu vs Luo. Rwanda Tutsi and Hutu etc.

By: DJ

DJ — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:47:06 +0000

My response to this article is: “Where have you been?” I don’t know what this article was trying to accomplish by stating that cab drivers are racist towards black people. Every black person in this country faces some kind of racism in a daily bases, the beauty about the whole thing is that with all of that bigotry we are in a position to elect the first black president. That dream will only happen here in America. You have to have a thick skin to survive in this country or it is going to eat you alive. This is America a country that was built with racism. The diversity of this country makes it so successful and appealing to many people but the dark side of all of that is ‘Racism’.

BTW……the writer made a huge mistake taking a cab to D.C. to go site seeing. The best way would have been the metro train. This will give the person to actually see the D.C. Metro area as a hole and actually save a whole lot of money and if the visitor was from Missouri most likely they have never been on a metro train and it would have been a better experience. I will stop now. Over all for a person that doesn’t live here it would have been a great awareness article.

By: EgoCentericMoron

EgoCentericMoron — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:41:51 +0000

In this time and age, sadly, racism is man’s reality. I don’t care where you live or what you do, you experience it in some kind of form or shape. Particularly in North America, it is a part of everyone’s life. So I wonder what exactly the writer was attempting to tell us. Perhaps I am too dumb to understand his crappy rhetoric which has no substance or may be he is just another racist African who wants to highlight how Ethiopians are viewed as being racist towards Africans in America.

Whatever the case may be IMO this was just a waste of time and bandwidth…hell I can write a better piece… I hope Tadias will post interesting materials in the future…

By: gabis

gabis — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:33:04 +0000

I have had a similar experience with Taxi drivers but I really don’t blame them. I don’t think, the drivers are racist. As sad as it may sound, they are merely being practical. I remember one cold winter, after a night of clubbing, I was trying to get a cab. Cabs went by me without stopping and I almost frost to death. After like 30 minutes, I managed to get a taxi. I struck a conversation with the driver and asked him why so many drivers decided not to stop for me … he answer was plain simple … because you are black. And I asked him, why they wont they stop for a black man, his answer was most of them have had bad experiences with black customers – mugging to be precise. this is in no means to justify their actions but i understand where they are coming from.

By: TGG

TGG — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:08:24 +0000

I do not blame the taxi drivers for doing what they are doing because their lives and lively hoods depend on who is sitting in the back seat of their cabs.