I think we just gave cupcakes to a racist." Now there was a sentence that hadn't clanged off our walls before, and I'm sure it'll be a while before it's heard again.

The story began when our house moving coincided with our discovery of Auntie Em's restaurant and its excellent baked goodies. We decided that cupcakes would be a nice gift for neighbours both old and new. From the old, we picked the guy who had given us his extra copies of The Economist and Time for several months. Definitely the least we could do.

We also picked someone we'll call Bill. He was the first person we met when we moved in, and was always friendly. Because he smoked, he was out in the courtyard a lot, his hacking cough reminding me of my father's. True, there was a hint of steel under the inch-deep warmth, but after five years in the US we were used to this. He was certainly friendlier to us than most of our fellow countrymen who lived in the same building. And though we'd never progressed much beyond conversations in passing, we decided he was a good egg and picked him for cupcake delivery too.

So funnily enough, after five years at Huntington Sunset apartments, Bill and I had a real conversation only after giving him our farewell gift. I knew from previous interactions that he had travelled extensively when younger: Tibet, Russia, China. But as we spoke, it seemed that his travel had only served to assure him the rest of the world lived ‘in the Stone Age'. Given the situation in Libya, and the recent events in Egypt, it was promising that he believed America shouldn't be messing around in other country's affairs, but I quickly realised it was for the wrong reasons. He believed these other countries were backward and so weren't even worth bothering with.

And when he talked about the US Army, sure, he had criticisms about the way it was run, but something about the 10-year-old's relish when talked about how "they're the [expletive] most powerful army on the planet" made me take a couple of steps back.

Cultural supremacism

In contrast though, he believed that since everyone in America has a gun in the house, the American people won't stand for any kind of mistreatment from their government, for there'd instantly be an armed uprising. (That presumably, would overwhelm their all-powerful army.)

I winced as his views came closer home, and included the phrase "those stupid [expletive] Mexicans", uttered twice without a hint of apology. Even if I allow that his belief in race superiority wasn't actually stated, there was enough explicit cultural supremacism that you might ask what I did during all this. Surely I must have defended the countries he disparaged? Or attempted to round out his views and demonstrate that one situation doesn't sum up a people and their history? Nope, I just smiled and nodded and got out of there. I don't regret this, because I believe he was too ignorant and intolerant to be worth spending any time on. Besides, the way he smokes and hacks, I don't think he's going to be seeing the world through those bigoted baby blues for much longer.

So was that a waste of four seriously good assorted cupcakes? Funnily, I don't think so. While I may not do it again, knowing what he's like, there's a certain Gandhian pleasure in having provided them even unknowingly. I like that we judged him fairly and as an individual before frosting him out forever.

 

Gautam Raja is a journalist based in the US.