Physiognomy

Brooklyn, Clinton/Washington station, waiting for a C train. 8:15 on a recent weeknight. I see a 30-something white man on the sparsely populated platform. Wiry, fidgety, he looks up from his study of a subway station ad, catches my eye. "What's the same about all these people?" He gestures to 30 or so portraits in a grid, all faces seemingly enthusiastic about reporting suspicious activity to authorities. "Just look. It'll come to you." I look. "It's easy!" Well, I say -- they all look happy. "Their noses! Look at their noses!" His words burst from a restraining dam. "See how they're all wide and flat?" Though the racial and cultural mix of this public service campaign has always struck me as exemplary, at a glance the many-hued noses do seem similarly shaped. "They're victims! See how their eyes are spread wide apart? The noses all flat? They're prey, not predators. Victims!" He paces on the platform, spins. He seems eager to expound. Lank hair curls from under his knit cap. I check: his nose is hawkish. I hear you, I say, moving on, not pausing to determine the distance between his eyes.