The one time in my life I was called “gangsta” (by a homeless woman!)

Raquel was a homeless woman I helped for quite a while. To my eyes, she appeared to be Caribbean black by ethnicity but she spoke such fluent Spanish that I was never sure.

As I approached her that day way back in pre-pandemic New Woke City, I saw a tall, well-dressed black man standing over her — aggressively talking and gesturing at her.

I walked up slowly to assess the situation but Raquel saw me and exclaimed: "I'm so glad you're here, Mickey! This man won't leave alone about God and lecturing me and now he's harassing me.”

Me and the man made eye contact and I gave him the once-over. He was much younger than me and much bigger than me and wore an emotionless expression. I was not feeling pleased to have been thrust into this situation.

Needless to say, I chose my calmest voice as I stated: "You heard the woman.”

"I just wanna talk to her," he replied. Raquel — seemingly emboldened by my presence — got to her feet and balled her hands into fists.

"I don't wanna talk to you! I don't want you to tell me what you think God thinks of me. Get the fuck outta here, man. Don't think I won't punch you!" 

Subtly, I shifted myself between them and faced the man who said to me: "I'm trying to edify her. All I wanna do is talk to her.”

Raquel started yelling about his use of the word "edify" so I took my shot to end this before further escalation. 

"She's made it clear that she doesn't want you to talk to her or even be in her space. You may say you just wanna talk but what you're actually doing is harassing her. (pause, while he stared at me blankly) So I strongly suggest you walk away right now and never come back.”

I could practically hear the gears churning in his head as he weighed his options. As you can imagine, I was very much hoping he wouldn’t choose further aggression or even violence.

Thankfully, he "saved face" by calling Raquel "crazy" before storming off.

Raquel sat back down and I got to the business of giving her what I had brought for her. A homeless man wandered past. Raquel knew him well and thus acted out the entire story for him. 

She ended with this: "I'm lucky Mickey came along. He told that punk to leave and he knew better than to stick around. You don't fuck with Mickey. He's gangsta!”

In my head, I mused: If "gangsta" suddenly means "introverted goofball," well, Raquel knows me well. 

Take-home message: Even when the odds do not seem to be in your favor, always do the right thing.