In prison just as in the outside world, one encounters people who are not quite as mentally stable as most. But the tensions created in prison are heightened by an inmate who doesn't have appropriate filters, one who speaks without much thought for who he might be offending.
Such is the case with Brian, a man given to sudden and random outbursts. Sometimes these eruptions take the form of a felt need to act like a parrot for 20 minutes or so, hopping up on stools and flapping his elbows while shrieking wild bird calls. Other times his expressions take the form of some rap chant he has invented, and he wanders through the unit weaving among the inmates yelling his verses at the top of his lungs to no one in particular. There is an amazing tolerance among the men in spite of these behaviors, and Brian even has a number of men who have befriended him and include him in games of dominoes or cards.
But Brian has another side that causes so much tension on the unit that I sometimes wonder how he has managed to stay alive for so long. He is a very vocal racist, and he seems oblivious to the reactions he gets when he spouts his unfiltered opinions in the presence of black inmates. I'm thinking of two incidents in particular during which I was thinking I may need to duck for cover having cringed at what had come out of his mouth.