Five Percent

I am laying in bed, thinking about some of the things that I DO miss about the States.

Don't get me wrong, I am not homesick or anything, but I have been thinking more about some of the things that I like and miss.

One, I have not driven a car since January 29!!!

I miss the independence having a car gives you; although I do like going out to the corner and hopping into a cab and being dropped off right in front of wherever I want to go.

I don't like stinky cabs or talkative drivers when I want to stare out the window.

By the way, I met a racist cab driver the other day. I'd heard Argentines can be very racist, but I had not encountered that.

To make a long Spanish conversation short, the cab driver basically started out by saying he doesn't like Barack Obama. I was like "really, why? You're like, the first person I've met who doesn't like him" because most cab drivers are like "Oh, the U.S.?! I LOVE Obama!"

So anyway, this cab driver is like, "No, I don't like Barack Obama."

"But why?"

"Well, because I'm racist."

Um, OK. We're at a stop light now, and he turns around and looks my face up and down, and says "You're medio" which I took in this case to mean in-between or not totally black, or whatever, which is true.

I don't really care what he is or isn't, and we still have about 10 min. of cab ride left and I'm not feeling at all threatened by this guy, he seemed likeable enough, albeit sadly misled, so I was like,

"Oh, really? How did you learn to be racist? Were your parents racist?"

"Oh no, no, I didn't learn it, no."

"Well then why are you racist?"

"Well, I'm not 100% racist. I'm like 5% racist. How do you say 5% in English?"

"Five-per-cent."

"Per-cent?"

"Yes, percent. Well, if you're only five percent racist, you're like everyone else -- everyone has their prejudices" (this was the only word I could think of in Spanish, because it sounds like the English word, but it pretty much is what I was trying to say, "prejudices").

And it's true. Whether we like it or not, we all have 5% biases against people or characteristics that irk us. We just try to overcome them, and not declare their existence to strangers in cabs bearing those characteristics.

That was the gist of the conversation, whatever, it was funny to me.