Hey Lil' Mama!

I had a very urban public transportation experience today. I decided to take the bus all the way home, instead of the train and bus. The X28 gets a bit jiggy after 60th street. When we got to the Y on 63rd, this woman got on, with a mouth full of sunflower seeds. She cracked one in her mouth and spit the shell on the floor as she walked back to her seat. Both the lady facing me across the aisle and I looked at the spot, looked at each other, then went on about business. I thought to myself, in my Adele Givens voice, 'She's such a phuckin' LADY!'.

Then, when I got off the bus to go to the Walgreens, I cut across the parking lot. In front of the Currency Exchange (what's an urban story without a Currency Exchange??) were a group of miscellaneous losers who were standing there, loitering. As I walk with my usual quick pace, I hear, 'Hey lil' mama! Hey, lil' mama!'. The voice was loud, raspy and ignorant. After hearing this about 5 times, I turned around and yelled, 'Why are you calling me that??!!!'. I was so pissed. I usually can ignore stuff like that, but it was so demeaning. Here I am in a purple sweater dress (that I felt like kept rising), my lime green Pumas, short red cross-over wool coat and all my bags. My face must have read, 'do I LOOK like I go by the name Lil' Mama!!' Because this, dark-skinned Grady (from Sandford & Son) look-a-like, looked stuck on stupid. He replied some kind of 'no disrespect' style apology, or maybe he didn't...by then I had turned back around, and pumped to the Walgreens. A man in a SUV asked if they were harassing me. I said no and that I was alright. Hey lil' mama...humph!