Coming up next on "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," I will rant about old people doing community service. (1/)
Every morning for the last few weeks, on my way to work, I have noticed old white people picking up trash with trash picker upper implements on the side of the road at 16th & Irving Streets NW (a very busy intersection in a predominantly black and Latino neighborhood in DC) (2/)
I confess, dear Twitter followers, that I immediately found myself suspicious of these old white people, dressed in their central casting "yard work" clothes with their trash picker upper implements, like some kind of twilight zone chain gang (3/)
Were they criminals? Some sort of white collar crime ring that got busted and is now engaging in court-mandated community service? What were they doing here in *my neighborhood*? They seemed so out of place. (4/)
I was also immediately grossed out at the possibility that these old white people were there doing non-court mandated community service. This is probably cynical of me, but in my imagination that kind of community service is gross and patronizing (5/)
With plenty of free time, and money being no object, rich old white people think the way to make the world a better place is to go to someone else's neighborhood and pick up trash? (6/)
Do they just sit around all day imagining poor people drowning in McDonalds wrappers? Like that is the thing that is holding the 99 percent back? (7/)
So, I kept these cynical feelings to myself for weeks. And I tried to push back on this internal monologue and Geraldine with the patronizing hobbies. (8/)
AND THEN. This morning. I got on the bus as usual. And the back half of the bus was full of people who looked... slightly... out of place. I probably wouldn't have even noticed except one of them had his feet up on the seat next to him. DURING RUSH HOUR. (9/)
I was so startled by the sight of this old white man taking up so much room on my bus that I started looking around and that's when it hit me. Not only are they patronizing us, now they're making it harder for us to get to work and school? Taking up seats kids should be in? (10/)
That was it for me. I am now officially going public on my firm stance against old white people picking up trash in the hood. (11/)
If you are an old retired white person who wants to make the world a better place, please do better than this. Maybe start with your own people? Get them to stop electing racist cleptocrats to every political office in the land? Get them to pay their damn taxes? (12/)
Once you're done doing that, if you really want to get involved with uplifting marginalized communities, and do direct service work, check in with the folks from those communities about what would help them. I might be wrong but I'm betting it isn't trash pickup. (13/)
And if... IF you cannot help yourself and you feel that you MUST travel to an "urban" neighborhood to pick up trash... PLEASE stay off the bus during rush hour. For all of our sakes. OK Geraldine? (14/14) <endrant> #generationalwarfare #classwarfare #millennialclapback
(note to self, have a copyeditor check your tweet rants because when you are mad you misspell things like "kleptocracy.") (15/14)
