It's a small town, so people know each other.
I go to speak to a group of women sitting at a table after walking back inside the bar, which I had a cigarette outside of previously.
Three guys from a Master's program are dancing a few feet away from the table.
I know them (well have talked to most of them on occasion). This Indian guy, self-proclaimed, I didn't know he was Indian, comes up and takes a seat between me and the girls when I talk to them. It was nearly immediately.
I had seen one of the African guys put a beer bottle in the ashtray outside of the bar before he walked in.
They were definitely drinking before they came to the bar and were drinking while in the bar.
I on the other hand was drinking water because I had a few drinks at another bar in town.
Back to the story, he sits down in a chair that is not meant for the table. It's a chair that sits much higher than the table.
The girls had all looked at each other when I asked them why they weren't dancing. Apparently, his girl
decided to be the ring leader.
He
told me to have a seat. I told him that I would rather stand. After that, he stands up and gets in my face. He says, "Are you trying to talk to my girl?"
I've seen all of them on campus and thought they would be friendly. I was wrong. I answer, "no." Before I can respond and say what I was doing, he says, "you're talking to my girl!!!!!" Then, he says, "Do you want to dance!!!! This is an Indian song!!! Go dance!!!!" I say, "I don't want to dance. Are you really going to act neurotic?.....(edit: I remembered the 2nd line of what I said, but I don't think I said anything else)."
"What, you don't like Indian songs You don't like Indian people...(I forgot the rest of the disrespectful things he said in between the next sentence)."
He immediately says, "You need to leave!!!! Go!!!!!! You need to leave!!!!"
His yelling and escalation gave me a deep-seeded feeling in my bones to protect myself. I think for 2 seconds about how to do that. The multi-purpose tool that I found on couch had a 3 inch knife, with a blade that was adequate. However, it would take to long for me to examine it and use it.
My mind tells me that I'm too close to punch him with a jab (I didn't remember my boxing and think about the hook). I settle for choking him. I get him by the neck and start walking him over to a wall to pass him out and one of the African guys starts pushing me out of the bar to protect his friend after his friend breaks free.
Outside, the African guy is trying to calm me down. I'm done because the whole bar knows what happened. Apparently, while the African guy was pushing me out of the bar, the Indian guy had grabbed a beer bottle and was trying to hit me with it while behind the African guy's protection.
The African guy had said while pushing me out, "he can't fight you."
The bouncer kicked out the Indian guy, and everyone that I knew was trying to calm me down.
What I learned:
1. I have to become functionally stronger to prevent people that are trying to de-escalate situations from getting me hurt or killed.
2. I should talk to relatively unknown men first before I speak to the women that are associating with them because it will soothe their ego.
3. Weapons bring danger.
4. There are no protection mechanisms besides your own. I.E. Where were the police and bouncers when this guy aggressed me and made me feel unsafe?
5. Never turn your back on someone that you don't trust (learned this in the moment).
6. You can't always give space when you want to.
7. What is right is relative.
8. Martial arts knowledge only reflects its usefulness with years of practice.
9. Observation will save your skin.
10. Seeing through distractions are essential to observation, but you can't see through "real" people. Bonus points if you know who I'm talking about right now.
11. Take the long way home if you quarrel to diffuse the situation and tire the opponent if they want to re-initiate the fight (learned that in the moment).
I think that covers all the major points.
Edit: I forgot to mention the most important one:
12. A trick/symp will leave you dead in the street over something insignificant. I.E. a woman.
2nd Edit: post updated.