Just when you think they have a "point," some racist white person has to muck things up

The Daily Mail a few days ago reported an incident that occurred at a 7-Eleven in Sacramento, involving an “outraged victim” of racial slurs; I am always curious about how the “foreign” press reports this stuff.  It is not clear what set-off the confrontation in the store, although it appears that a black woman started a screaming match with the white woman because she took offense at something the latter said. The white woman is heard shouting out that she only said “excuse me.” I noted that the white woman was wearing a facemask, and the black woman was not, which might have been the real “instigation” of the incident. The black woman is seen to be acting physically and verbally aggressive, and then the white woman, apparently trying to think of an offensive thing to call her, chose the “N-word,” and when the black woman dared her to say it again, the white woman chose to be foolish and repeated the term, upon which the black woman started punching the white woman into the ground. 

But let's get "real" here: if the white woman had called her a "rude asshole," those would have been "fighting words" too. In any case, from my perspective, the black woman was not the “victim,” but the aggressor, and yet the white woman clearly was not a victim either, choosing to respond to this black woman’s aggression in a way that was sure to play well into the politics of race, especially in the media. 

Meanwhile in Riverside, California, police released on YouTube a compilation of security camera video of various looting and acts of property destruction, asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspects. One video shows a group of men tearing out an ATM machine in search of money, but failed to accomplish the mission; one person nearby is holding a “BLM” sign. However, the break-in of a T-Mobile store was an “equal opportunity” free-for-all, in which a distinctly “interracial” bunch charged into the store like a herd of buffalo grabbing phones before rushing out just as quickly. Is this what Rep. Maxine Waters means when she extols BLM to “keep up the pressure”? 

Sorry, but what was the “point”? I’m going to have to think real hard on this. The only thing I can think of is that is—well, actually, I can’t think of anything that justifies this behavior. This “don’t mess with us” shtick would be a lot more convincing if some people were not committing half the violent crimes and armed robberies in this country; “don’t mess with us” goes both ways.  

And yet every time I want to cut white people some slack, there always has to be some racist asshole to muck things up for them.

Take for example an incident that occurred this past weekend when I went into a Rite Aid drug store in Kent. I normally would have gone to the cheaper-priced Big Lots store behind it, but they did not have any facial wipes, and as I had purchased adult wash cloths at the Rite Aid store before, I decided to amble on over there instead.  Picking up a hand cart I walked directly to the location I had remembered they were at before. They were located in an aisle that also included mostly baby diapers and other baby-oriented hygiene items. Since I was in the store I picked up a pack of “all-purpose labels” I needed to label jewel cases for DVD-Rs that the Big Lots also didn’t have. I then decided to see if there were any chips worth buying; I noted that there were Pringles on sale, but decided not to purchase them because they required a Rite Aid card which I didn’t have. 

After that I went to the aisle where I remembered there were DVDs and CDs and started to peruse through what was there. It was at that point when the trouble started. A white male with slightly graying hair and beard, wearing glasses and what appeared to be a hunting shirt and cap (and without the required facemask) came around the corner and asked me where the “diapers” were. For a moment I actually thought he was asking me an innocent request for information, and I pointed toward the general location of the diapers. But then he asked me again, and when I expressed befuddlement about this line of inquiry, he once again asked me where the diapers were, but this time his tone and inflection changed to a sinister, accusatory one: He was asserting as a “fact” that has surely taken a package of diapers, and since he didn’t see them on me now, I was certainly “hiding” them somewhere, and most likely in the backpack I was wearing. I told him he was crazy, and to get out of my face. It was clear that he was “assuming” that I should have those diapers on me, because that was the only thing he noticed in the aisle; if he had actually seen me take anything, he would have seen it was the pack of wipes that were in still in the basket I was carrying.

But this man refused to leave me alone; I was stunned, confused and angered at this person’s continuing false accusations and demands that I open my backpack for him. If he had an “issue” with me, he should have spoken to a store employee, because he was clearly not an employee and I wasn’t going to satisfy the demands of this jerk who apparently saw a Hispanic male, and “we” are all thieves and 99 percent of the time if “we” go into a store by ourselves it is to “steal” something, because when “we” are outdoors  it is to engage in our other favorite “pastime”—car-prowling. I called out for the manager, but no store employee intervened. I then called out louder for this man to get out of my face to get someone’s attention and get this person away from me, but again nobody came, so I decided to end my shopping then and there and walked to the counter to pay for the items I had and get the hell out of there. 

But this white male racist jerk stilled followed after me, still demanding that I show him where the “diapers” he insisted I was hiding somewhere were. I demanded someone look at the security camera video that would prove that this man was harassing me falsely, but no one did anything, let alone try to stop him. I expressed my anger to the manager—who I assumed was the woman in the dark shirt—who was saying nothing and allowing this to happen to a customer. I again told this man to get away from me, and then he started acting like the typical cowardly bully, expressing the “fear” that I was going to “hurt” him despite the fact I was clearly smaller and older than he was, and he got on his phone to call the police. 

The clerk at the counter tried to pretend it was business as usual as I completed the purchase, but that didn’t stop the man from attempting to block my way, still trying to convince a 9-1-1 dispatcher to take him seriously, since whoever was on the other end of line could hear someone in the background saying that this man was a liar and that someone should look at the security video, and then there was this guy talking in that “calm” tone of someone with evil intentions, and probably a Trump supporter. I still got past him anyways and out of store, upon which he told me I was “banned” from the premises, as if he had the right to do that. Maybe I should have waited for the police to show up so they could arrest him, but I doubted they even bothered. In any case, I got on the Internet and filed a complaint with the corporate office, and received a response that they were “sorry” about my experience and would “look into it.”

Now, if I had been someone else, I might have did to him what that black woman in Sacramento had done to that white woman. I’m sure if I was black, that bastard wouldn’t have dared approach me to make such an accusation, but would have informed an employee of his “suspicion.” But in this country Hispanics can be accused of anything and everyone will believe it, can be killed by police with hardly anyone taking note—and are not allowed to defend or even speak for themselves because harassment and discrimination isn’t racist because “ethnicity” isn’t a race, even though what most Hispanics are not “white” is the “purebred” sense, but mixed indigenous and a lesser number being African. And here I am, a “native-born,” college-educated individual who served in the military, and I still have to tolerate the ignorance of the vast majority of the people I have encountered in my daily life—white, black and “others” including Hispanics; it has come easy for me to believe that nobody is “innocent,” especially of hypocrisy.