To be fair, none of you were there and dont know the whole situation from before the recording started.
For all you know, the young black lad may well have gotten on the bus and as he walked past the older chap gotten a racist comment from him. In my experiance, alot of people from around that generation (before you jump on me, reread it - ALOT not ALL) and older are passively racist and do not even realise they are doing it, or fail to see whats wrong with it. Especially when the older chap starts defending himself from being called a racist, Ive noticed its the people defending themselves when accused are normally racist to a varying degree, as someone who is completely unracist will never ever give rise to an opportunity to be accused of being racist, but those are few and far between.
I feel also that the young black lad is also being heavily stereotyped, hes black, hes young, he gets into a fight, perhaps his clothing(?) therefore he is a thug. Anyone can end up in a fight, no matter what background, colour or age they are. That leaves the other two, hes black and hes young. Being young doesnt mean your a thug, despite what the papers believe, im 20, I dont carry knives with me, I dont have a glock in my back pocket or a sawn off shotgun shoved down my trouser leg. I dont go around pushing over old grannies or go shopping for lots of lovely things with no money. His clothing, anyone who thinks he is dressed like a thug needs to go to a bad part of town and go say hi to some shady looking people. Hes cleanly dressed, well presented (for a social outing with a friend), hes not trying to conceal any part of himself or his identity. He has dressed himself without fear of being caught for doing something wrong. That leaves the last one, hes black, yeah, great logic, hes black therefore hes a thug. I suppose he also has a humvee with a shotgun in the boot and a hydroponics lab in his bedroom.
Im not trying to defend the black lad, but if you listen to the audio - yes his stupid friend is getting excited and making racial slurs but the lad doesnt say anything like that at all. Yes he tells the older guy to go away, because he is p**sed off and then starts trying to look away, obvious body language of he doesnt want anymore confrontation. But when the older guy moves, and the black lad raises and starts shouting back at what ever the older guy says as hes moving (poor audio) he sits down again. You can see he only really gets hyped up and wants to do something about it is when the older guy starts saying something from the front of the bus, but due to the poor audio and the other passengers you cant hear it. For all you know he could of said something along the lines of - "stupid f****ng n****s need to f*** off back home". He just got riled up too far and made the first move, young lad, hot headed and racism (even its not from my example, the mention of asking for a shoe shine is still going to be fresh in his mind) always gets to people in some way, shape or form, what do you expect? There again at the end of the day, the older chap should have more sense in his many more years experiance to walk away from a confrontation, but on the flipside, for all we know it was the black lad who started the argument.
If anything they are both at fault, the younger lad should of known to let it go, and the older guy who is mentioned for being known for his mental problems and run ins with police should not have been taunting him trying to get a response whether he knew he was doing it or not.
I know its a bit long winded, but in my opinion it is extremely unfair and unjust to draw up opinions as to whos fault it was and who deserved what when you do not know all of the contributing factors leading up to the fight. What ive said is more than open to being discussed, after all its a forum, however if its not constructive criticism or general rudeness, please, hit home at the top. As I imagine im going to have some hot headed unconstructive reponses to this :|