“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly,” is a series in which we highlight your stories — be they good, bad, or ugly — about being black in America. We all have different experiences, but you can bet there is always someone out there who can relate to your stories. A reader sent in an account of a parking lot encounter. Have a similar tale? Would you like to share and/or vent about a moment when you’ve been proud, delighted, ashamed, or discriminated against based on your race? Send it to lauren AT stereohyped.com with the subject “Good Bad Ugly.” And I welcome the good stories! [Note: Still waiting for some of those positive stories, readers!] There’s already so much ugly in the world.

My boyfriend and I were verbally lambasted in the East Meadow, Long Island parking lot of Walmart last month. Why? Because a White man was honking his horn at me, yelling angrily for me to move a shopping cart out of his way so that he could get into the parking space it was in.

Mind you, I did NOT put the shopping cart in the parking space in the first place (we had only just gotten there and parked, ourselves), and the man (who arrived mere moments after us) had ALREADY parked in another space. But, the fact that I, with my Black self, refused to move the cart when he ordered, and had the audacity to give him attitude, angered him to no end! My boyfriend had to tell him off, because he was clearly trying to disrespect me, saying I was no better than the "jerk" who left the cart there in the first place! He carried on about wanting the parking spot; and, when my boyfriend told him he should've gotten out and moved the cart himself, the man screamed that he was handicapped and needed the space (which was no closer to the store than the space he was already in). Um, then why not park in one of the many handicap spaces that were available? "Because my car is a rental," he screamed. What a nutcase!

The man even popped out of the woodworks after we'd made our purchase (having bought nothing, himself, mind you - he was so clearly upset that he was waiting for us to exit) so he could follow us back out to our car w/his message of ignorance. He went so far as to ask, "What do you think White people think of you when they see you do things like that?" Are you kidding?? It's a shopping cart! And I am NOT the parking lot attendant. He said many other ignorant things, like how he used to work with Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, and that by doing what we did (i.e., disobey a White man), Martin Luther King Jr. would turn over in his grave. Really?? Clearly you have NO understanding of MLK's teachings! He even flashed the fake emblem of a souvenir NYPD t-shirt hoping to intimidate us.

My boyfriend and I told him off, calling him out as the racist that he is, and letting him know that we would not bow down and take his ignorance. We did a commendable job (if I do say so myself) of holding our tempers (it is White suburbia after all…a Black man stands little chance when a White man calls the cops on him out there). And, although we were inwardly angered and shaken, it was the crazy S.O.B. that went home and lost sleep over the situation. He was soooo angered that he couldn't get a violent reaction out of us that he yelled, "You don't exist to me! I hope I never meet people like you in life ever again," just before rushing into his car and speeding out of the parking lot.

This is America, 2008.