Ok I remembered the story I wanted to tell!!
Ok so shit sucks right but to remind everyone that people aren't inherently terrible:
It was my Sophmore year of high-school and I was actually making (irl) friends for once in my life. All of us were some flavor of queer and neurodivergent.
It's Halloween night. We're going trick or treating. I think we were traveling from one neighborhood to another but I'm not sure. I just know that we ended up in the city at some point and we *did* have a destination in mind I just don't remember it very clearly.
But we live in US. And at the time I lived in a very pedestrian unfriendly state. And none of us were old enough to drive. So we had to take the bus. Which meant walking for quite a while, crossing streets, and hoping we didn't have to wait like an hour for the next bus.
I literally was never given permission to wander the city alone and was too socially inept to try. So this was my first time actually getting to explore the city I lived in. I remember thinking the area we lived in was pretty like... Early cyberpunk vibes? Lots of lights and colors. Almost like Hong Kong without the towers. I describe this to set the almost dystopian vibe.
At some point we once again had to cross the street. So one of us pushed the pedestrian button and we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And the little man wasn't appearing. And we were getting kind of worried.
But at some point, the drivers must've somehow noticed we'd been there for a while because a lot of the cars just stopped. And soon a driver waved to us and indicated we could cross.
So after encouraging the one friend who was too hesitant to walk, we hastily crossed the street and thanked the drivers.
And that's the tale of how like a couple dozen drivers without even talking to each other unanimously decided to let a couple of trick or treating teenagers cross the street.
What makes this kind of even more... Special? Or interesting? Idk. Is, and maybe this is the case for most countries idk, but in the US at least, teenagers are literally despised. They're almost always assumed to be up to no good for no other reason than their age. They usually aren't allowed to hang out anywhere besides the mall, library, or some isolated nature trail. Everywhere else you'd probably get kicked out for "loitering." One time when talking to my grandma about how some security guard at the train station asked if I was *really* going to take the train (I had a backpack and suitcase with me) she said "well maybe he didn't ask that because your Black. Maybe it's because you're a teenager." The hatred for teenagers is *that* bad.
But despite this cultural disdain for teenagers, several people were like "hey they've been there for a while and we could technically start driving but it wouldn't hurt anyone to let them cross before us"
First, regarding the bit about your grandma- it is genuinely horrifying that the sentence, "maybe it wasn't because you're black, maybe it was because you're a teenager" can be said in earnest. Systemic racism and ageism coalesce into something that's essentially the asbestos of American society.
Having said that? I'm glad those drivers decided to behave differently that day. I'm glad they decided to forego their own biases to let a gaggle of kids in silly costumes cross the road.
And personally? I think teenagers should have the right to be annoying, to just stand somewhere with no real agenda, and not be arrested for it. Just an opinion of course.
