Multiculturalism, Overheard Style

Ghetto guy #1: You got a Hasidic for a boss? Ha, ha, ha.
Ghetto guy #2: Yeah, that guy is cheap.
Ghetto guy #1: Yo. They got all the dough. All the dough…Dude wear the same clothes every day!
Ghetto guy #2: Ha, ha, ha. Yo, that motherfucker is cheap.
Ghetto guy #1: Same clothes, man. You got the little boy shit, the teenager shit, then the man shit. Three sets of clothes for the entire life. They got all the dough.

–Verb, Williamsburg

Overheard by: Jarrah TG

Teen girl #1: Do they card here?
Teen girl #2: Yeah, but they don’t card the Asians.
Teen girl #1: Isn’t that racist?
Teen girl #2: No, that’s like…affirmative action or something like that.

–M2M, East 11th Street

Overheard by: evan t

Guy: Did you see that woman? She looked at us like she’d never seen a black man before.

–NYU College of Dentistry elevator, East 24th Street

Girl #1: She told me she could get wine stains out of the suede…
Girl #2: Wow, did she?
Girl #1: When I came to pick it up there was a big red stain and I said, “What the fuck is this?”–like that–and she just looked at me all dumb.
Girl #2: What, was she Chinese or something?
Girl #1: No, she was normal.

–LIRR train

Guy: We’re all wearing jeans. We all have black hair.
Chick: We’re all Asian.
Guy: We are? I thought we were just normal?

–F train

Overheard by: Gretchen Irmiger

Girl #1: Wow. Akiva Goldsmith’s really made something for himself…for a Jew.
Girl #2: God you’re a racist.
Girl #1: What makes me a racist? I’m part Jewish.
Girl #2: An hour ago you asked me why all Asians look the same.

–Loews Lincoln Square, West 68th Street

Overheard by: Pop Iris

Salesman#1: How do you pronounce this guy’s name?
Salesman#2: I’m afraid to try; I might chip a friggin’ tooth.

–Jacob Javits Center

Overheard by: willy k

Hobo: Well, mathematically speaking, I’m fucked.

–2nd Avenue station

Overheard by: Maddog

Hobo: I don’t steal. I don’t snatch purses. I don’t bother women. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not a homosexual. But I do bathe. And I do sleep on the subway ’cause I am a bum.

–4 train

Overheard by: Jen McC.

Hobo: Anybody want to take the day off and cuddle with me? It’s kosher!

–52nd & 5th

Overheard by: Jess

Hobo: I’m just tryin’ to get some pussy here and all y’all gotta come up in here and bother me. Damn.

–PATH train

Overheard by: Everett Moran

Hobo: I’ve been shitting plastic lately.

–Q60 bus

Overheard by: Ben

Hobo: Please help me…Please help me…I need money to buy popcorn…Please help me…I need a hot meal…I need money to buy popcorn.

–53rd & Park

Hobo: Uh oh, uh oh! You make a big doo-doo! It’s okay. I make big doo-doos too.

–Astor Place

Overheard by: Melissa Cole

Hobo: Spare a little change, girls? That’s all right, God bless you…even the Chinese girl.

–Bank & Bleecker

Hobo: The tax man has a licence to kill. No questions asked. More people should know that.

–5th Avenue-53rd Street station

Overheard by: Tzvi Tampa

Hobo: If you see a suspicious black package on this train do not pick it up. If you see a large, black package on my seat after I leave, do not worry. It is not a bomb. I’ve been riding this train for fifteen years. Leave it for the Coney island clean-up crew. They’ll take care of it. It is not a weapon, it is not filled with hundred dollar bills, just don’t touch it…Did you know that Union Square is a hundred years older than Times Square?

–N train

Overheard by: Zelda

Hobo: Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the interruption. I am trying to raise one million dollars and 25 cents for wine research.

–4 train

Overheard by: Hobo Whisperer

Hobo: All you people who just got on the train, everybody in this car already gave me $7. Everybody gave me $7 but you.

–6 train

Girl: So I saw this homeless guy walking down the street with, like, all the bags and stuff, and he had something bewtween his teeth!

–6 train

Hobo: Hey man, help an ugly dude out, will ya?

–33rd & 8th

Overheard by: Brian Graham

Hobo: What’s the holdup? Let’s get this train moving! There’s people gots to go to work, gots to go to school! There’s pregnant people! Court musicians!

–R train

Hobo: Yeah, a couple of Jewish lawyers out to fuck the world…Shee-it.

–42nd & Lexington

Overheard by: Ronald A. Veenker

Little boy: What’s the “n word,” Dad?
Dad: I’m not gonna tell you.
Little boy: Why?
Mom: It’s worse than all the other words because it makes specific people feel bad.
Dad: You don’t need to know it. It’s one of those things you’ll learn when you get older. You’ll learn a lot of bad things when you get older.

–Barnes and Noble, Astor Place

Overheard by: Ben

You’ll learn all this and more, at 7PM on Wednesday night at the store above. Please come join us as we discuss and sign our new book.

Guy: That the fucking bitch that called the cops on me! That fucking bitch called the cops! You! White trash! White trash! White trash!
Chick: I always knew you were a bigot.

–St. George, SI

Girl #1: Look at the clerk…You know what they say about Chinese
clerks…
Girl #2: Shh, Jord, let’s not be racist in public.

–Blockbuster, 56th & 1st