Race relations are strong in America.

I don't know how popular this video has become, as I've been busy cleaning and sharpening up my resume and generally being unemployed. But if you've Googled "AC Transit Fight," "Thomas Bruso," or "I am a motherfucker" (a slogan that should be emblazoned on the back of every T-shirt ever made), you've run upon the following video, shrouded in mystery below for its use of colorful language.



Let's discuss the digusting part of this. Not the fight ... nor the seemingly racially charged discussion that apparently started all of this.

Here's the summary: White dude talks shit, some of which is racially biased. Black dude talks more shit, which amounts to an escalated defense against said racially biased shit talk. This simple pattern escalates until white dude walks away from the argument. Black dude ceases to let this matter go, even up to the point of following white dude to his newly acquired spot on the bus, originally intended to be farther away from the agitation, but now very much at dead center. Black dude retreats, as white dude then mutters more shit talk; at this point, talk has long gone from racial issues to "I'll beat your ass," "Naw, I'll beat YOUR ass!" One more thing out of white dude's mouth -- that ONE LAST THING -- and black dude angrily steps to white dude and punches him in the chest. Then, white dude proceeds to BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THE BLACK DUDE. Blood drips, pours, splashes out of the face of black dude, while the bus stops and white dude is ushered onto the sidewalk, stating that he was hit first, and therefore his reaction was "self-defense."

One question I have is, does the "self-defense" defense even work here? Okay, say that white dude is in his house, and black dude breaks in (or vice versa ... for any tightened up asshole passerbys that may be reading), and then white dude shoots him. Okay, yeah, maybe "self-defense." But the beatdown delivered by white dude to black dude on said bus = "self-defense?"

Onto what I find the disgusting part ...

The cunts filming this should be as much held accountable for their part in this fight as much as the black gentleman. And Mr. Bruso, the "white dude" in this picture, seems to have every right to walk away with very little admonishment, if any. Sure, he's an asshole. He was also clearly riling up the anger of his fellow passenger; did this situation really need two women, one of which looked to be around her mid-twenties (so we can assume that the other woman, our cameraman, may have been as well) clearly escalating this situation, with cries of "Kick his ass, kick his ass!"

Then, you have the response to the Punch-Out on display, that after helping the situation along, the girls act shocked and appalled that the instigator throroughly beat the black dude's ass. Shocked at what, I have no idea ... but I'm sensing that these are fine upstanding women who would spin this shit into a racial thing in a hurry, when all it is, is two douchebags fighting on a bus.

But the real kicker? At the end, when our young black dude is clearly seen to be busted wide open, our sypathetic young ladies are laughing at his situation. In fact, before the dude returns to the back of the bus, one girl evens suggests to the other girl that she "go through his shit."

Granted, the end shot of the sidewalk bench - "Keep Our City CLEAN & SAFE; Do Your Part" - was a nice touch, something that certainly happened by accident, as I doubt the cinematographic skills of Wanda & Sheneneh being good enough to have pulled that poignant, thought-provoking ironic shit off on purpose.

Sometimes, sometimes man, just when I think that society has become about as shallow as it gets, some people find a way to drain a little more water out of the pool.