Friday, March 6, 2009

It's All English to Me

So the other day, I was in Wal-Mart, which is where some of America's scummiest families shop (at least in Pocatello, anyway). That might sound somewhat judgemental, but listen to my most recent experience.

My sister and I were waiting in line at the self checkout. The register to our right was occupied by a nice-looking Hispanic couple. They couldn't have spoken very good English, since they had the machine speaking Spanish. To our left was a white man with his maybe 10-year old daughter. I could tell he had quite the temper on him, especially after seeing the look of terror in the young girl's eyes whenever her father would speak to her. As the Hispanic couple finished putting their groceries back in their cart, April and I moved up to begin our transaction. It was then that my little faith in the integrity of mankind was put even further to the test. I stood in shock as the angry man caught sight of the Hispanic couple leaving and said "Bye bye, spics," and even began singing the Mexican Hat Dance and laughing at them! I was frozen, chin on the ground, heart in my throat, and every muscle in my body tensed. How was it possible that, in the year 2009, someone could be so racially intolerant?

Here's the kicker: this situation was much more ridiculous than I let on originally. This angry man was having quite the difficult time with the self checkout register. This was painfully obvious as the machine continually said to him "Please place the item in the bag," "Remove the last item from the bagging area," and "Please wait for assistance." As the man cursed profusely at the inanimate object in front of him, mocked the innocent passers-by (thankfully they didn't hear him) and yelled at his poor daughter, I realized the irony of the situation. Only an ignorant, self-centered racist would humiliate someone because of their race when he himself is severely lacking smarts.

4 comments:

  1. Pretty disturbing. If I recall, you told me it was his over weight daughter that was causing the problem with the scale, she kept leaning on it. I feel sorry for the man, he doesn't know any better, but I feel really sorry for the girl because she will be raised to be the same way her father is. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But who knows maybe once it does it will roll far, far away and take root to something better?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good point. There must be several different variables that cause people to be who they are. Maybe the little girl will see the idiocy of her dad and grow beyond his narrow-minded opinion of different races. Thanks for the comment! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Crazy stuff, it's hard to see that kind of blatant stupidity here, but it still exists...I especially find it strange, when one minority is racial toward another, seems like you guys would be in the same boat, you might get along better...I guess I'm just stupid that way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. aww!!! btw, look how cute Aaron looks!!

    ReplyDelete