Thursday, July 17, 2014

don't you know i'm human, too?

the other day i stopped by walmart and after getting the things i needed, i decided to wander through the yarn aisle like you do (and because i have a problem. you should probably start preparing an intervention. use notecards. and logic.)

anyway, i stopped to flip through the books on crochet patterns (refer to the previous paragraph. note the problem mentioned.) and this girl came through the aisle with her cart. she was maybe twelve and as she pushed her cart past me she said, "excuse me." which in and of itself is neither extraordinary nor worthy of a blog post. before i could politely smile and/or say anything in response, the girl's mother - or whoever the older lady that was with her was - says with disdain, "she doesn't speak english, honey," and then pushes past me (like literally walking into me) to leave the aisle. (i'm just going to point out that i am overly conscious of the amount of space i am taking up at all times, and it is very rarely that i will be in someone's way in a confined area (large, crowded areas are a different story and probably one of the reasons i tend to avoid them). and also, if the girl could push a cart past me without bumping into me, i'm pretty sure a lady could do the same as she walked by sans cart. apparently not, though.) it was only after i unfroze from my moment of shock and found myself alone in the aisle again that i thought of twelve hundred things i could have said. but that's how it always goes, isn't it? and, i mean, even if i didn't speak english, that would not give other people license to act like i'm below them.

it's been a while since i've had any incidents with ignorant people. i kind of forgot what it felt like. and all i could think of were all of the professors who are constantly telling me things like, "yeah, racism exists but not around here," and "the thing about america is that we all accept everyone," and "well, i am absolutely horrified to hear that [insert random incident here] happened to you, but i'm sure it was an isolated occurrence and would never happen again." oh, how great it must be to be a white, non-muslim male in america.

*Rude - Magic!

2 comments:

  1. anonymous hippopotamusJuly 23, 2014 at 12:27 AM

    :O That's awful!!!

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  2. whoa. I'm sorry.
    i haven't had any incident with ignorant people since ISA times, and those were all skin-color related not religion related.

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