Desultory- lacking a plan or purpose; halfhearted; lukewarm; lacking enthusiasm
Ex: I offered a desultory goodbye to the doorman before leaving the office for the weekend. Did I really care if he had a nice weekend? No, not particularly. Though I didn’t wish for him to get mugged, or to have a pigeon defecate on his head, or to get food poisoning from an undercooked bodega chopped cheese. The doorman had always been perfectly nice and cordial, greeting me with a cheerful “good morning” and a tip of the maroon with gold trim bellhop hat. It was kind of fucked up how the company made him wear that thing. He had been a dutiful employee for well over twenty years now, and yet they still made him dress like a Moroccan hashish shop owner; like a second-rate worker. Seriously though, why did they make him wear that flowy white kaftan with the embroidered red feather neckpiece that looked like some sort of pseudo-tie. He was Puerto Rican, wasn’t he? And the strappy leather sandals with the half-inch thick sole. How was he not freezing in New York City in the Winter?
I turned around and went back in through the revolving doors.
“Yo, Ricardo. Why are they making you wear that?”
“They passed these out to the first-floor staff to wear for black history month. I asked if I could rock timbs, but they wouldn’t budge. They said I had to wear the sandals or my next bonus would go bye-bye.”
“Are you serious? That’s messed up, man! You could sue!”
“It’s no big deal man, I’m used to it by now. This is how it is when you’re the brown guy surrounded by Patrick Batemans.”
“You know what, I’m going to bring this up with the boss on Monday.”
“It’s all good brother, I don’t need the white man fighting my battles for me. Thanks for the thought though!”
*Cut to Monday morning. Ricardo, speechless in the lobby as a white man dressed as King T’Challa from The Black Panther emphatically opens up his arms and yells to an otherwise empty entrance hallway *
“IT IS I, THE WHITE PANTHER. HERE TO DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OUR EMPLOYEES OF COLOR! CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER MICHAELS, SHOW YOURSELF NOW! WAKANDA, WE WILL NO LONGER WATCH FROM THE SHADOWS. WE CANNOT. WE MUST NOT. WE WILL WORK TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW WE AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS ON THIS EARTH SHOULD TREAT EACH OTHER. NOW MORE THAN EVER…”
*Ricardo runs over with a Taser and sends 50,000 volts of electricity into the back of my black spandex suit, just below the party city tag*
“Not so super now, are we!”