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Race Matters
I love to travel but the actual process of taking shuttles, boarding planes, and talking to random people can often take a toll on my spirit. In my return to DC from San Jose after Spring Break, I met Jim, a single father of two young children, whose wife left them due to drug addiction. He’s a middle class entrepreneur who was headed to Florida for a much needed vacation. When the East Bay Shuttle picked me up at 4:30am for my 7:00am flight, Jim was already in the front seat. I figured that I would sleep for an hour while the shuttle traveled to Oakland from San Jose but Jim felt like talking. He asked me my name and where I was traveling. I answered but did not engage him in conversation; an hour of sleep waited. He was quiet for a couple of minutes before he asked me what I did in DC. He was curious about how I was paying for law school and I proceeded to discuss federal and private loans. He asked me if I worked and after I answered that I did not work, he proceeded to tell me that he had completed a year of law school but dropped out due to financial problems. “Poor Jim”, I thought.

Suddenly, he took a deep breathe and began to accuse me of being a parasite on society. His ignorant berate continued, “your people come here and just feed off my people who pay taxes and work hard. My grandparents came here in covered wagons but I can’t receive financial aid to enroll my kids in a private school because people like you steal this country’s resources.” The only things he knew about me where that my name was Lucero, that I was a law student in DC, that I did not work, and that I received financial aid. I was so mad that this man had chosen to release his frustration and ignorant racism on me at 4:30am. But there was no use in actually trying to have a conversation with him. I sat there and smiled, thinking that people like Jim were the reason that I was in law school. An affirmation and a moment of clarity in an otherwise uncomfortable, hate filled morning. My silence was like fuel to his fire. He then proceeded to tell me that I should drop out of law school because I was a horrible attorney if I could not even defend myself. His voice got higher and higher and I think he was about to really let me have it when Ralph, the shuttle driver, asked him to be quiet. Then, I turned to him and said, “Jim, I am going to pray that your children do not grow up to be ignorant racists like you. Have a great vacation.” Minutes later, Jim got off at the San Francisco airport.

Ralph turned out to be a Chicano and a Vietnam War Veteran who has to work because his benefits do not cover the high cost of living in the Bay Area. On the trip from San Francisco to Oakland, we laughed at Jim’s expense and Ralph encouraged me to be a strong advocate for people like him. Another sign that I am exactly where I need to be. This incident came after an enlightening conversation in my Constitutional Law class. While we were discussing school desegregation and affirmative action, many of my classmates actually said that racism did not exist anymore, that it was a thing of the past, the stuff of history books. Yet in my class of 90 students, there’s only 1 black man. When this fact was highlighted, people actually said, “see, the system is working.” I was awed beyond comprehension. Where did these people grow up? How scary that these are the future leaders of our country.