Nignorant

"You guys got didgeridoos? I gotta get the FUCK outta here!"

Grizzly threw his hands in the air and fled the scene with an aura of such prejudiced fear that I had to re-evaluate my entire view of the trainhopping community. Grizzly, and the rest of his friends (some of whom I'd partied with last year in Montreal) were the epitome of traincore. 

Traincore (adj.) /treɪn kɔː/
Niggas who adhere strictly to the following three rules.

1. Your must ink yourself out of society by tattooing your face. This separates you and your crew from any association with the bluecollar grind.
2. You must respect and accept the Traincore Prejudice. Yuppies are unacceptable, "business-suits" are unacceptable, hippies are unacceptable (and didgeridoos, portrayed as "hippie-sticks" are even more unacceptable.) Any clique besides punks and traincore kids are to be disregarded. Any travelers who don't hop trains are also unacceptable.
3. You must hang out with your traincore crew, talking about traincore things, having stupid traincore fights amongst each other.

Anyway, as Grizzly's six-foot-five, massively disproportionate 300 pound body lumbered away in fear of being seen associating with hippies, we frowned as a thick cloud reared its fluffy face and began trudging across the sky towards our sitting spot. Not wanting our backpacks to become moist, soggy piles of must, we soon found ourselves heading towards the nearest shelter - an elementary school where last year, a group of me and my friends had been kicked (and kicked out) by a power-tripping Toronto cop. 

We joined a group of two young negroes. Before I continue writing, I'll care to inform those who are uninformed about the current use of the word nigger in frequent youth standing. 

Nigger originated as a derogatory term that slavers would call their slaves in an effort to undermine their dignity. This would label them not as humans, but as animals. After the slave trade came mostly to an end, the black street culture adopted the word, altering it slightly to become the word nigga. This greatly reduced the impact that the word nigger had and its use declined. In more recent terms, the term nigger has been readopted by most western cultures to reference anyone - black, white, or yellow - who conforms to a certain set of immoral tendencies: disrespect, thievery, belligerence, etc.

That being said, there had been a lot of debate over the "niggers" that we'd seen at the drop in center the week prior. Since the folks that had been called niggers were, indeed, black, the word took on an entirely new level of intesntiy. It was hard to come to a general understanding that they were termed that not because of their skin, but because of their stupidity, their aggression and their inability to be civil.

Anyway, as I whipped out my leatherbound journal, the two boys' eyes widened and I shared some stories that I'd written down about the road. We struck up conversation about travel, and these conversations quickly twisted themselves into freestyles.  These freestyles echoed in the doorway as we rapped about positivity and maintaining good mindsets. I liked these dudes.

Tragically, Toronto has a terrible predisposition in regards to black people. Stereotypes are often there for a reason - and the kids at the drop in center proved that. Though these kids we were with now were indeed confined to the streets, they weren't disrespectful. They were polite, happy, and willing to share their wisdom. Kids like these (and myself, I like to think) are the ones who can change a person's racist viewpoint. Hopefully, we'd have a chance to share these views ourselves.

As the case of beer emptied, so did our drawers of inspiration. The freestyles fell short, and the group came to disperse. Once me and Fernweh had time to ourselves, we laid back and let our new knowledge of prejudice settle into our brains. Fuck a label, man. We're all just people.