So get this. I'm walking down the street, iPod earphones in my ears, returning to work after lunch. I cross a street at a four-way stop and keep walking. A guy in a car approaches the four-way stop which is now behind me. He turns right and as he's driving away he yells, "You look like a fucking faggot in that shirt!"

Because I'm listening to an Out There Radio podcast on my iPod, I don't register the comment for a couple of seconds. When I realize what he's yelled and that he's clearly referring to me (because there isn't anyone else around), I turn in time to catch a quick glimpse of him in his car as he rounds another corner.

Now here's the weird thing. The shirt I'm wearing is a solid, purple Oxford from Express Men's Store and your run-of-the-mill black slacks. My shirt is  not the traditional white or blue, but it's not that far out of the realm of your average dress shirt. It's pretty basic. The other weird thing is that I get more than the usual number of comments from women about how good I look when I'm wearing it (which is, in large part, exactly why I wear it).

I told my friend at work about the incident and she thought it was hysterical. She was actually bummed that she hadn't been there to witness it. Nice. :o)

I'm oddly disturbed by the incident, though I've no real reason to be. The guy could only see my back and was clearly simply reacting to the color of my shirt.

I find it so strange that dressing even slightly outside the expected norm can be met with such ferocious hostility.

I was able to make out that the guy was driving an old, beat up Ford Neon - dented, washed out paint job from sitting in the sun. And I could see from his arm hanging out of the driver's side window that he was dressed in a flannel work shirt. Why are these details important? Well, they fit my stereotype of the blue-collar, lower-income, low education, white male who perpetrates this sort of act. I guess that's my reality tunnel. Am I off base here?

I think the other reason that I find it so disturbing is that I've been reading the content on the website The Authoritarians about a particular personality type this is capable of the creulest of behaviors in the name of being lead by a charismatic character. Think Nazi SS Stormtroopers under the command of Himmler.

I suspect that my thoughtless buddy in the beat up Neon belongs to this personality type, or, at least, possesses some of the characteristics that makes this personality type so rigid, afraid of change, fearful of the different and willing to commit violence in the name of control and conformity.

Scary, no? Your thoughts?

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