Every other Friday I stay later than normal and work until 9:00am waiting for the Diamond Cab office to open so I can pick up my insurance stickers. I hate staying that late but it's good to witness the horror of the rat-race sometimes.I was stopped at a red light at the corner of 15th and I streets, couple of blocks away from the White House around 7:30 this morning. While I was sitting at the light I witnessed at least six empty cabs passing by without stopping for this black chic who was trying to flag a cab so she can get to work on time. As soon as I got the green light I pulled over and picked her up. With a calm voice she said "I am glad you picked me up because I have been out here for half an hour and no cab would stop for me!". It is a crime and injustice that you have to stand and wait half hour for a cab to stop for you in the middle of a business district downtown during rush hour.
Her name is Danielle and she was wanted to go to the "Social Safeway" in Georgetown where she works in the seafood department. That's the Safeway on Wisconsin avenue where people used to flirt and exchange phone numbers before the likings of Match.com took over live socializing. Danielle is one of the thousands and thousands of African Americans around the country facing this dilemma over and over again, in fact Danielle is so used to this she wasn't even upset this morning, she was happy that she will be on time to work. She was telling me that one cab driver once mentioned to her that he doesn't like picking up niggers and the driver was of course BLACK himself. I am not denying the fact that we cab drivers are easy targets for criminals but why in the world that a young black woman on her way to work during day light could be a threat? I am ashamed of some of my fellow DC cab drivers!
I see lot of you cabbies driving around proudly with "Obama for President" bumper stickers, but I bet you that some of you motherfuckers wouldn't pull over for Mr Obama if he flagged you in front of 1600 Pennsylvania avenue. I have been robbed at gunpoint myself and my best friend Pastor Joe who is white and who also got robbed three times and got badly stabbed once never discriminated even after all that until the day he quit cab driving. We can not deny service to the majority of the hard working BLACK people because of the criminal actions of a few NIGGERS! If the kitchen is too hot for you you need to get the fuck out and be a doorman or something.
Danielle, I am glad that we met today and for making me $9 richer for a ten minute ride. The only color that Mad Cabbie pays attention to is the green! nothing else, and thank you for letting me take and post your picture.
P.S If you shop at the Social Safeway in Georgetown, stop by the sea food department and say hi! Danielle knows her sea food.
Please don't forget the homeless,
Mad Cabbie.
9 comments:
God bless you dear Mad and God bless Danielle!
MAD YOU ARE THE MAAAN!!!
That is a shame that she could not get anyone to pick her up. I run across this frequently. I get some funny reactions from my black customers after fifty cabs have passed them and I pick them up.
Many of my black customers will get into the cab and say 'Thank you for picking me up'. I simply reply 'Thank you for waving, where are you going?'. There are some who will not get in when you pull over, they walk up to the front window and say their destination with a question mark after it. I used to say things like 'You will not get anywhere except the hospital standing out there, you will catch your death of ________[heatstroke, a cold, pneumonia--as appropriate for the season]. It is ______________[cool, dry, warm--as appropriate] in here. Whatever I say to them, they get in and remark that some drivers will not go here or there. More than a few have told me that the only time that they do not ask is if it is a Capitol Cab. There ain't too many of them left.
Many of the problems with the cab business springs from an attitude on the part of the drivers that they are doing the customer a favour by being out there. When you are providing a service, it is the other way around: the customer is doing YOU a favour by engaging your services. Yes, there are those who treat us like garbage, those who think that even though their time is worth something, ours is worth nothing and those who think that for eight-dollars-and-seventy-five-cents that they own you, but those are in the minority.
Ed Bradley has some interesting stories about trying to hail a cab in front of CBS in New York. I can tell you two about Wilhelmina Rolark. I can also tell you a few about the Million Man March. As you probably indicate, half of these guys would not pick up Obama.
Shame.
Great post. I experience the same scenario in my town. I love your comment that the only color you see is green. Rock on!
Mad, you are the best! I'm so sorry Danielle has this experience day after day, but I definitely know what she's talking about. By far the WORST PLACE to get a taxi anywhere in the morning is on any curb in downtown DC IF YOU ARE NOT A GUY--any color--wearing a pinstriped suit and lugging a big fat leather briefcase.
I love the DC cabbies, but when it's clear they're not stopping for an old chick in tennis shoes and carrying her pitiful pb&j in a Safeway bag, I either give up or walk half a block to a quieter place where I know they're more likely to stop. It's a crap shoot.
As my daughter, who lives in taxi-free south Scotland says, God bless you and God bless Danielle.
God love ya, uncle mad!
Niggers don't want to pay at the end of the trip, or complain and cry and tip you nothing...They want something for nothing, the Democratic party has spoiled them for years with hand-outs! I used to wait tables years ago so I know the drill Mad Cabby!
GO JOHN MACAIN 08!
Depends. Is Obama a good tipper?
Blue Eyes, you are a fucken IDIOT!
Diamond 419
SEE FOOD!!!!
Post a Comment