Taxi Cab Confessions

One of the cardinal rules when you get in a taxi is: make friends with the driver.  There is no such thing as a meter running so you haggle over a price until you either get in or he drives off.  Sometimes even if you get in a bitter cabbie will complain how cheap you are until you reach your destination or will stop en route if he thinks you should pay more and kick you out if you wont.  So if you can make friends with your driver.

Now I've found greeting them and asking how they, their family, their third cousin Mouctar is doing usually helps.  Typically if I'm the one asking questions things go well.  But inevitably the conversation turns to me:  The strange white woman living in the middle of nowhere.  They approve of PC and of America, often throwing in a joke against the French.  Then they ask the question I hate:  where is my husband.  Magically he always seems to be just where I'm going.  Too bad I'm taken fellas.  That should stop this line of questioning but then they want to know if I have any single friends because they really REALLY want a white wife. 

Now we come to the point where the friendship is going down hill.  Call me a militant feminist (you wont be wrong) but my sense of social justice begins to rankle.  I know whats coming.  Still I play it cool.  Nine times out of ten these guys are married so I tell them my friends wouldn't agree to be 2nd or 3rd wives.  (Some men take their right to 4 wives very seriously.)  However, this isn't a problem each and every one has said to me.  They would simply leave their wives because with a white woman a man only has one wife but with an African woman it doesnt matter how many they have.

It is taking all my self control to maintain this taxi cab comraderie.  There is no way a woman becomes more or less valuable because of her skin color.  This isn't like choosing between a diamond or a cubic zarconia.  I want to scream at these men, maybe punch them in the face.  They would be fit to shine the shoes of some of the black women I know yet they treat all women as lifestyle accessories not a life partner or family member. 

And that's it I realize.  These guys dont respect women at all.  What they want is a pretty thing to show off.  A bunch of boys who want to brag over who has what.  Any man can get a wife but rarely can they get four or even one of a different color. 

I shake my head and hand them their money.  Maybe next time I'll just let the driver be grumpy and save myself the anger.