It always ends up the same way. We decide to get a drink. The three of us have tried, many times. Sobriety is not one of our strong suits and we were not planning on kidding ourselves into thinking it.

“Where shall we go?” Three people in a car with same thirst in our minds wondering where to quench it. We are not going crazy tonight, just a few because some of us have work the next day.

“Let’s hit the President in Karama” a neat place meant for aging booze hounds like us. As we snake our way towards the hotel a change of venue is introduced.

“Let’s hit the Rock Bottom Cafe instead, the one opposite Bur Juman”

I know that joint. Fun and me were never there at the same time. And they were, completely and utterly racist when it came to selecting which patrons can dawn their hallowed halls of cackling reptiles and smoke.

I mention this to my drinking hyenas “Dude they are fucking racist”

“Let’s just try, what’s the harm?”

The change has commenced, we now snail through traffic wasting valuable drinking time in the hopes of a fun evening. It has been years since I have been there so maybe the place has changed.

We park and as I walk towards the entrance. It begin to realize the place hasn’t changed at all. The bouncer has been eyeing me from a distance. Here comes the red tape.

I lead the charge in walking in.

The bouncer stops me and looks me dead in the eye, almost threatening. As if the next words he is about to utter would send me in a violent fit of rage, which he is well and truly ready for.

“No shorts allowed”

“But it’s a weekday dude, does it really matter” I reply

He smirks. There is a red lipped waitress standing next to him as well. The smirk is followed by a deep question. It is a question you could ask an alien if it just landed on earth or to a nun who decided to attend an orgy.

“What are you here for?”

There it was. The emphasis on the ‘you’. That fucking ‘you’. The bouncer is smiling now. The lady next to him begins to laugh in fits and bouts.

She is white and he is from Africa. Yet the ‘you’ in his sentence was a good blow to my brain of how fucked up the world is. How we hate that which is different. How we laugh and stereotype the ‘other’.

It was like his hate and stupidity had suddenly slapped me in the face. The girl continued to look at me and my friends and laugh. I could feel it welling up, my friends were not going take this lying down.

The bouncer continues “Are you here for food or just drinking?”

“Just a couple of drinks”

“A hundred per person and I will let you in.”

The girl next to him cannot contain herself, she starts laughing out loud in glee. The bouncer chuckles at this joke me and my friends seemed to have missed.

“Thats ok” I say “Let’s go guys”

We turn to leave and as we take a few steps away from the entrance, reeling from the racism we just faced, out from the entrance stumbles a white guy… in shorts and slippers.

My friend can’t let this slide. He heads to the bouncer

“What the fuck man?”

The bouncer smiles and laughs

“Ok, ok you can get in. Free of charge”

His brain is fooling himself into believing he is now doing us a favor. Letting us in so we can spend our money at a place where just a few moments ago wasn’t good enough, based on the color of our skin.

I politely decline and we head on our way. In my mind I begin to remember where hate and violence comes from. It is indifference and a lack of empathy you project to any living being.

It is the idiot on the street shouting about divine intervention without thought or care for another’s belief. It is the asshole who calls another human being a fag for crying, as if being gay was an insult. It is the employee who won’t stop hitting on his female co workers, because that is what they are there for.

It is the asshole bouncer of a shithole bar, with his shrieking harpy sidekick who judge people on the color of their skin.

Fuck you Rock Bottom Cafe for making me realize how horrible the world can be when all I wanted was a goddamn drink.

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