Snowflake Kid Talks Shit, (Sort of) Gets Hit

     This happened earlier, so I wanted to write about it while it's still fresh in my mind. Today is the 1-year anniversary of Spartan Taco Truck (home of the absolutely delicious crispy taco) opening their storefront. To celebrate, they discounted tacos and beer for the day. I figured the combination of a delicious product and such close proximity to San Jose State University would create quite the demand - lo & behold, there's a line stretching out the door by the time Daisy & I arrive. Most of the folks in line appear to be students - young Asian Americans in their late teens/early 20's. However, the man we get in line behind is a middle-aged (40-something?) Caucasian male (tbh, he's reminiscent of Brett Favre).
     After Daisy and I gripe to each other about the long wait, the guy in front of us turns around and starts commiserating - apparently, his girlfriend's been calling them for the past hour and a half to no avail, so he was sent as the procurer of tacos. All in all, waiting in line sucks, but since we want the tacos we just wait it out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. After some more time in line (we ended up waiting a little over half an hour to place our order), the guy's had enough - he leaves the line and walks away. After a few seconds, some college-aged kid immediately in front of us shouts something along the lines of "Good! Fucking redneck!" Either the guy doesn't hear or is just letting it go - I think it's the latter - so the kid shouts out even louder "Get the fuck outta here! *pause* CRACKER!!" & this is where keeping it real (which, btw, that kid definitely wasn't keeping it real) went wrong.
     The guy turns around and starts briskly making his way back, shouting "You wanna fuck with ME?!" The older guy comes up to the kid and shoves him into the door pretty hard. That would be the first and final blow, though. They hold onto each other and swing each other around in circles (in hindsight, it's rather comical - in the moment, I think the kid was holding onto the guy to prevent any punches, and the guy was not trying to get into serious trouble over some punk ass kid) - the kid rips the older guy's shirt, and eventually they are separated. A worker comes outside and assumes the older guy is in the wrong, asking him what he did and gesturing in a protective manner towards the instigating kid. The older guy briefly explains himself, but leaves all the same.
     After the older guy leaves, the friends that this kid is with are talking about it so animatedly. I'm stunned because for the whole 10-15 minutes I was in line with the guy, we just griped about the long wait - absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't want to open my mouth without knowing the whole story, though, so I just listened to these people talk. Here are some snippets:
     "That was so fun!"
     "I wish I recorded it!"
     "He was such a racist! & a homophobe!" 
(At this point, I'd like to remind that the guy came off totally normally to me.)
After listening to more of their conversation, this is the only thing concerning race OR sexuality that they mentioned:
     "He said, 'the whole continent of Asia is cutting in front of me'!"
     In my head, the only reaction I can muster up is ...really? You let THAT get to you?

1. If I was getting cut by a bunch of people, I'd be annoyed too
2. If a bunch of Asians cut me in line, and I use exaggeration to express that a bunch of Asians are cutting me in line, is that racism or just... exaggeration? Also, if you're so offended that he's a homophobe, how come you couldn't actually describe what he said or did that made him come off homophobic?

     If you can't tell, I'm writing about this incident because it really upset me for a number of reasons. 1 - I mean, this idiot kid was being a jackass. Not only that, but he was surrounded by a bubble that reinforced and encouraged his train of thought - so really that's 6 people being idiots, at least.

2 - I'm ashamed I didn't say or do anything in the moment to set the record straight, at least from my POV. Anyone listening in to the group (and they were being loud, mind you) would think the kid was in the right and the guy was in the wrong, which is just flat-out wrong. 

3 - Not only was the kid being a jackass - he was being a total coward! He waited for the guy to leave the line before he started running his mouth, which is just really disgusting considering the content of his speech. 

     Later after my meal, the kid happened to be standing outside the bathroom after I had finished washing my hands (and while Daisy was washing hers, so he couldn't go in quite yet). I couldn't miss my chance at some 1-on-1 conversation, so I asked why he waited for the older guy to start walking away before he started talking shit. He replied "I didn't think he would come back." I'm stunned by this kid's stupidity, because the guy WOULDN'T have come back... if this kid didn't open his mouth for no damn reason..?! In these situations, to avoid letting my shock and disbelief come across, I just respond with a generic, "Hmmm, ok." I can't let this kid get away without at least something to chew on, though, so I said "Man, if you felt so strongly about it, I wish you had said something sooner." My intent was for him to think about his willingness to open his mouth before shit spewed forth next time around, couched in supportive language so he might be more receptive to it, but alas, who knows if he got the message  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?

     In any case, I'd love it if I could develop a spine and pipe up in future situations like this, because "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." In other words, my silence feels like complicit agreement with what came out of that young man's mouth, which couldn't be further from the truth. But since I didn't say anything at the time, that doesn't really matter, does it?