The Time I Had to Pretend to be Republican

Let me paint the picture for you

It's a Saturday night and you are low on funds to and don't want to be shamed by the chipotle employees for getting your fourth bowl of the week; so, what do you do? Well, what any logical college student would do, make some ramen noodles. So, you take your cup of pre-made ramen, fill it with water and place it in the center of your apartment microwave. But, as you walk away and look back at the humming of radioactive waves heating up the substance require to sustain life – it's not turning. Why is it not turning?

And at that moment, you realize, you're paying too much money for a broken apartment.

So, yeah, my microwave tray wasn't working. The turntable for whatever reason was not turning. I put in a work order and it took about two weeks before someone came by and looked at it. And on top of that, the apartment's maintenance guy wasn't even there initially for the microwave because I called the main office to have them fix my dryer that's setting off my smoke alarms; but that's a story for another time. Eventually, the maintenance guy told me that I just need a new microwave and that it would take six months due to COVID-19. So naturally, I didn't have my hopes up.

Then one Thursday afternoon, as I am speed-watching a video documentary for African American studies before class, I get a heavy knock at the door

This hulking man – literally seven feet tall comes walking in with this brand-new microwave. In the back of my mind, I am stressing because my class starts in an hour and I do not want maintenance to make too much noise, it has happened in the past. I also don't appreciate how maintenance for my apartment complex arrives unannounced. Sometimes I'm home, sometimes I'm not and I wish I can get a scheduled time so I can plan accordingly.

Anyways, as I awkwardly sat at my desk, I let this giant install my microwave. Something about him was off but I couldn't figure it out right away. Until he started struggling with ripping the microwave off the wall. As soon as he finished with that – he jokingly made a comment along the lines of "Treat it like how you treat your wife, throw her around a little." Alarms start blaring in my mind. "Oh god, this man is making me uncomfortable." But I did the normal half-laugh because I didn't want my attitude to throw him off and have him not properly install my machine.

So, for the next hour, as I am watching the time tick away, he installs my microwave. Making comments about my thoughts about the election, if I'm voting in November, etc. I gave very vague answers to not indicate my political leaning and surprisingly he bought it. This man felt so comfortable talking to me about his ideology. He called Kamala Harris some degrading, sexist words. He claimed Trump was going to bring peace in the middle east resulting in the Anti-Christ coming and that Jared Kushner was a sign because he's Jewish apparently. How Ronald Reagan was the devil since his name had 666 and how his Christian leadings calls to him allying with Trump because Trump has "done so much" for America and the protests are the radical left's. Also, he talked about Biden and his "dementia." And rather than cutting him off and going full liberal and citing facts, I instead just listened.

The more he talked the more I felt pity for him

Just to think that he and millions of others in this country have the same ideology, the same way of thinking. Just hearing rumors and crazy conspiracies it was just so uncomfortable and sad. The fact that we are so divided and plagued with fake news that it will take years for us to reunite.

And like I said, I just sat there and let him talk. I didn't want him to mess anything up, I didn't want to offend him. He was super hulking in appearance and could throw me out the window if he wanted to – it was just an incredibly uncomfortable situation. In the end, my microwave is fixed, I can enjoy the little food I have left since I can't go to Walmart with no car. And now I have at least one person out there that thinks I'm the token Republican black man he has heard rumors about.