The World According To Chris Brewer

Tonight, or I should say last night since it’s 2:16 AM here on the East Coast, Jon Masters and I took a trip to Sonic. Now there are three Sonic Drive-Ins that are easily accessible from Langley AFB, and since it was late we decided to take the shortest drive and the greatest risk…we drove to the Sonic on Mercury Blvd. in Hampton, where white people aren’t necessarily the most welcomed group.

Bad idea.

I should have known that bad things were to come after I had to press the “Press Here To Order” button TWICE at the little parking space we pulled into. A female voice came over the speaker and asked us “Yo, welcome to da Mercurah Boulevar Sonic. Whacanwedoforya?”

I made sure to plainly articulate our order — I would be getting a #3 meal with a large Coke AND Strawberry CreamSlush (the meal contained a Chili Cheese Coney, a large order of fries and the drink), and Jon would have the #5 meal (Popcorn Chicken with a large order of fries and drink). Of course, the place was busy. The longer I waited, the longer I felt like I could die at any moment as a bunch of miscreants with gold teeth and shirts six sizes too big walked by.

I rolled up the windows. Oh wait, our food’s here.

Jon and I looked through the food we received — the chili cheese coney was there, and so was the popcorn chicken. He got his Coke and I got my CreamSlush. Only things that were missing were both orders of fries and my Coke. The carhop, an aging black female who didn’t seem to happy to be serving us in the first place, brought my Coke but no fries….and no receipt.

So I asked her where the fries were and she said, “You guys got a receipt. Look on it, the total was $11.”

“Uh, no I didn’t get a receipt,” I said back. “Let’s tally everything up then, I got the #3 meal and he got the #5. I got the CreamSlush, I think that’s $11 right there.”

Without a word she stomped off….and brought back one SMALL order of fries. Somewhere in between her stomping off and returning, I had discovered that there was no fork to eat my Coney with. So when she came back, I asked her for a fork, and said that when we pay for something, we simply deserve to get what we pay for.

I guess that set her off. She stomped away and yelled loudly, “I ain’t f@%*ing walkin’ back there fo yo!” (Yes, she said “yo.”)

So I kept the window down and ate the Coney with my hands, while Jon and I seethed about how bad the service was. A black couple next to us was ordering their food, and they ended up getting the same carhop. THEY got every item of food they ordered, and she was as respectful as you could imagine.

There you have it. Hampton, Virginia, the city that proves that racism isn’t just an ideology from white people against blacks. Hampton has some of the worst black-to-white racism I’ve ever seen, and even though tonight wasn’t too bad, Jon and I were victims of it.

I’m not a racist…in fact, I’m far from it. I have tons of black, Asian, Mexican, you name it friends. It’s just that the actions of someone tonight makes me scratch my head and wonder about some people.