I want to tell this story, not because it's unique, but just so that I don't forget it. It has little to nothing to do with politics, dailykos, or metajesus.
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I went to the local supermarket today. While I was there I decided to buy some lunch from the wok line. While I'm scooping out some rice, an old white guy comes up to the counter and starts rambling to the me and the Chinese woman behind the counter.
"Bah! Those peppers!" he complains, pointing to one of the dishes. He's not ordering anything, just looking at me, looking at the woman, and trying to formulate some kind of coherent thoughts: "bah those peppers are hot you know." (blank stares from both of us) "Made my eyes tear...those peppers!" At this point, I don't know what he's doing there. He's not ordering anything. So I had nothing to say to him. I just kind of smiled back and kept scooping.
I finish scooping out my food and bring my tray to have it weighed and labeled by the woman. As she's weighing it, the old man walks around me and stands next to me, right in front of the woman. He looks at me and while chuckling says
"Man, these people. they just come over to your country and dont even try to learn our language - ya know?"
I was a little bit surprised to hear that, but replied:
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't think she does either, but you seem kind of racist."
The shit-eating grin on his face suddenly disappeared. Something in his little brain made a connection where none had ever existed before. The thought that he might be a racist had clearly never even crossed his mind. He mumbled something I couldn't understand and walked away.
I turned back to the woman behind the counter, and as she hands me my styrofoam box back says "Thank you for doing that. Have a nice day."
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If I had actually thought it out in advance, I would have responded to the man in Spanish. Up until that point, I hadn't spoken a word to him, so he would have had no idea that I spoke English, and it would have been the ultimate irony for him to get a response to his complaint in a different language. As a first generation immigrant (at a very young age), I've seen my parents treated like total idiots just because they speak with an accent. Today brought back a lot of that anger and reminded me that people live with this reality every day.