Offensive tourists.

Sometimes when I've gotten off the subway and am waiting for the bus into campus, there's some tourists there, maps in hand, and I know they're going to this museum near campus.

So, often, I tell them how to recognize the museum (so they don't ask the driver and slow the bus down), but also to be hospitable.

One of the other features of the neighborhood I point out is this really good French bakery, and Obama's house.

This week, there was this fattish blonde white woman who looked very Midwestern, her husband (a big bulky guy in flannel and a blonde beard), and this wide-eyed teenage girl he was kind of gawky.

So, I was nice to them and found out that they were visiting from Iowa, and gave them directions to the museum, and told them about the French bakery etc., then I also mentioned that they could go see Obama's house, though it was a bit of a hike from the museum.

"Uh, no," the woman was like, abruptly, and laughed a few short laughs, and her daughter tittered as well.

I was taken aback, and didn't say anything, and got off at my stop, which the bus arrived at soon after, but as soon as I got off I realized I should have called the woman out for being a racist; even if she wasn't a fan of the president; I was being nice, and there's nice ways to turn that down, like saying they have a full day, or that the walk was probably too far (she was, after all, fat).

On top of that, the tone she had reminded me of the really racist reactions I got from (white) voters when I went door-to-door for Obama back in '08; on top of the refusal, there was this layer of attitude that was just unnecessary, and you just knew that it came from something racial.

So, when I got to the main library and walked in, I saw the (younger) (black) (female) circ desk supervisor, and she was like, "Hey, how are you doing?", and I told her, "Eh, kind of pissed I didn't tell off this racist tourist woman on the bus."

She asked what was up, and I told her the story, and ended by saying like, "You know, she could not support the president, that's fine, that's some people's choice and some people's politics, but there's just this little something else on top of it, and you know she's racist."

"Exactly," the circ desk supervisor was like.