Oliver missed his boxing session on Sunday, leaving this old man to spar with a 17-year-old specimen for an hour and a half. So, as my headache abated some after boarding the #55 and making one large insolent negro, with a washcloth on his head, move his sprawled leg so that I might sit in the upper back corner of the coach, I called my star knucklehead, wondering if he had dropped some like fellow on his head and ended up squirming once again under a storm of police batons for the blasphemy of defending one's self against a Licensed State Pet.

"No James, something came up with my mother. But, the very next day after the one dude wanted to fight me for slowing down in traffic to avoid an accident, this other dude wanted to fight me.

"This time it was my fault. I was nosing out looking for a break in traffic and had pulled out too far, causing this guy to have to swerve around me. Of course, he stops, cusses at me, and wants to get out and fight. Of course, he's black. It was my fault, so I looked at him and said, "My bad."

"I could still tell he wanted to fight but he let it go with a threat—something or another he would do to me if I crossed him like that again. Why are black people like this, always wanting to fight [asked the young black man of the old white man]?"

"Well, that commentator on Hidden Colors claimed that blacks get more violent in the summer heat because they are coming to their senses and Africa is rising in their blood. I'm certain my Uncle Bernie would have agreed."

"That was the comedian, Moony. Really, you think it's in the blood?"

"Well, you're not like that and you're smarter than my entire night crew was combined. So no, I think it is intelligence. I also think that it is significant that public school students are more violent than private school students and that private school students are far more violent than homeschooled kids. Think about it, if you are an idiot, the world becomes a frustrating place and frustration leads to anger, especially among the stupid. There is also the fact that you are the only black guy I now who wasn't brutalized by his mother. More importantly than all of that is that our society is set up to promote the generation and justification of this hoodrat with the washcloth on his head sitting in front of me."

"You sure you're all right out there tonight, James?"

"This labrat is doing just fine. You're training this weekend?"

"Yes, sir—I've been shadowboxing every day."

"See you then, bro."