While we were waiting I noticed an african american man waiting next to us. While it was a little chilly outside, he was covered in what seemed an excessive 7 different layers of cloths. I didn't really know what to think of it so I just continued talking with my friends. When the train arrived we decided to get on a train car that was a little less crowded, so we walked down the platform and got on.
After we found some seats I looked up and noticed that the man had followed us and gotten on the same train car. Also while there were plenty of empty seats, he stood by the door holding a boom box. When the doors closed he immediately ripped off his large overcoats and was left with a classic Michael Jackson outfit on. He proceeded to press play on his boom box and started dishing out some classic Jackson moves. One of my friends decided to video tape the dance.
What I found interesting about this experience was the reaction. On the train was a group of 4 white north shore kids, the Michael Jackson impersonator, and a group of about 5 or 6 african american adults. Also interesting was that we were sitting on completely opposite sides of the train car; no one was in the middle of the train car except for the Michael Jackson impersonator.
Me and my friends sat there silently, and I remember not knowing what to do. I wasn't sure if he was trying to get money, or if he was just doing this for fun, but I sat there and could barely even look. I stared at the ground most of the time. Whereas the African American people on the other side of the train were all watching and most of them were video taping and a couple of them were dancing along. Not like the Michael Jackson person was dancing, but they were shuffling around and singing the words.
This experience made me wonder why we had different reactions. I know the song and I know most of the words but I didn't have the same reaction to sing along. I wonder if I was so timid because he was african american. I wonder what would have happened if the dancer was white. Would the african american people on the other side of the train started video taping him and singing along like they did in this video?
You bring up a very interesting issue here, especially because we recently talked about civil rights in class. I think it brings an interesting parallel to the Civil Rights Mvmt in that on buses during that time the whites and black had to be separated and you guys just happened to end up separated from the African Americans in your train car. Also in the video the dancer is facing the other side of the car most of the time, he almost never turns to face you guys, so it seems like he was only dancing for the other African Americans in the car. That makes me question why he would do that, did he feel more comfortable dancing for them?
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