Ignorance is Alive and Well in North Carolina

As I was driving south on I-85 today, not far from Charlotte, North Carolina, I began to hear chatter about a slowdown coming up in a mile or so. Sure enough around the next bend the brake lights began to light up the roadway as the cars and trucks began slowing down and eventually came to a halt. Whenever this happens, the CB radio also lights up with predictably drawl statements and equally predictably drawl and unimaginative comebacks. The majority of these exchanges are harmless if not just ridiculous but what I heard this afternoon was so vicious that I was ashamed to call myself a truck driver.

A voice came over the CB that was easily identified as belonging to an Aftican American man who asked if anyone knew if the backup went all the way to Charlotte.The next "good ole' boy" who got on the CB said, "Hey why don't you come up here we're burning a cross in the median."  I was shocked to hear such blatant racism. The black man just ignored the remark and kept asking if anyone knew the status of the slowdown. I was enraged at the audacity of this nameless coward who had attacked a fellow driver because of the color of his skin. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a good retort until long after the event had happened. I felt like a coward for not coming to the driver's defense. I know that if this ever comes up again I will be ready with some comebacks, i.e., "why don't you crawl back into the cesspool you came from - you give truckers a bad name!"