Quick, if someone hit you out of the blue, what would you do?  Confront them and hit them back, or remove yourself from the situation?

Weird question?  Well, I got assaulted riding the metro last night.  No joke.  This 300 lb black lady hit me in the face.  I was sitting down, minding my own business, listening to my ipod and trying to sleep, when out of nowhere, I felt someone strike my mouth and throat.  And it wasn’t some sissy slap, it was an enraged, all your weight behind it kinda whack. 

Stunned, I opened my eyes and took out my earbuds and heard her accuse me of raping her.  My first thought?  Are you shitting me?  I was sleeping!  But this wasn’t a joke.  Because I had reached for my ipod that was in my inner jacket pocket, my elbow had grazed her hip or her butt, and she perceived that as ‘rape’.  I didn’t even know that I touched her.  I mean, you know when you touch someone.  Apparently, she had been raped so many times that she became hyper sensitive to any physical contact, no matter how minor.

Needless to say, I moved to another seat.  There was a really nice, older lady sitting across from me, and she made space so that I could sit next to her.  Turns out that she was a law enforcement agent, and it was a good thing she was there, because the other passengers started to antagonize my assaulter, and she defused the situation.  There was a lot of smack talking going on, and some even said that if they were me, they wouldn’t have let it slide.  Yes, there is a lot of injustice in this world, and what that black lady did to me wasn’t right, but to hit her back?  The idea didn’t even cross my mind. 

My lip puffed up and my throat turned red and swollen and it hurt a little whenever I swallowed, but I iced it up pretty good when I got home.  On the outside, I look fine, and though there’s still a little bit of pain, I’m okay.  This is not enough to make me scared about riding the metro.  I’ll just take more precautions and be a more vigilant rider for now on.  Statically, 1 out every 4 ppl will get assaulted in their life.  Since I got assaulted, maybe life will spare my three sisters.  I know that it doesn’t work this way, but that was one of my thoughts last night.

If this had happened to you, what would you have done?