When I was growing up in
Wisconsin, my family lived in largely “white” neighborhoods that my parents
felt comfortable in. They were, after all, born and raised in the western, “butternut”
part of Pennsylvania, the social attitudes of which the late Rep. John Murtha
once described in somewhat disparaging terms that some took self-righteous
offense to—and where Hillary Clinton thought making a “real Americans” crack
would “appeal” to that constituency. The Catholic school I spent most of my
pre-high school year was also all-white,” at least in my eyes. It took me a
long time to realize that I was “different” from other people by “appearance.”
I didn’t really have any negative
interaction with strangers I met—which wasn’t difficult, since I pretty much
kept to myself; there was little opportunity for other people, regardless of
race, to do anything that would allow me to form stereotypical ideas about
them. Of course, that doesn’t mean to say that people who encountered didn’t
have stereotypical ideas about me. Things did change when I enlisted in the
Army, I was forced to interact with a lot of people at close quarters; my
previous tendency to look at people as if they were all “the same” took a great
deal of hard lumps, especially when some people took my natural tendency of standoffishness
as “personal.”
Looking back, during my youth I
think that some people were “friendly” but not friends because of their
attitudes about what they—but not me—saw.
My “culture” and thought patterns were the same as theirs, but I was
still “different.” The attitudes I might encounter ranged from “empathy” for my
“condition” to “concern” about slipping into supposed genetically-ingrained
anti-social—i.e. “criminal—behavior.
Once one becomes an adult, this “empathy” and “concern” usually turns
into things like paranoia, fear, prejudice and even “hate.”
Not that this attitude is always
equally defined. I recently found myself in a Kent Safeway store on Mercer and
Washington Street. I usually dislike going there because I always get the
feeling that I am being “spied” on because I look “ethnic.” On this occasion,
no more than 30 seconds after my arrival someone over the intercom stated
“Security—Skittles Zone.” One thing I noticed was that there were a number of
black employees roaming about—apparently Safeway had a new hiring policy, or at
least this store did—that it was going to be “different” and become a model of
“diversity.” Of course, I didn’t see any Latinos in the place, although there
used to be one or two in the deli department years ago.
After I picked up the items I
wanted, I proceeded to pay for them using a self-serve check-out machine. While
I was scanning the items and placing them in a bag, one of the employees
pretended to be checking on something that was allegedly “malfunctioning” which
I did not discern myself. Instead of waiting until I was finished, she rudely
shifted my bag so that it would open wider so she none too subtly peer inside
it. I gave her a “do you mind?” look, and she sort of shifted away, but she
wouldn’t leave until I was finished. At least the machine was more polite than
anyone human in the place.
What was going on here? I have
been in store plenty of times before, and no one could claim that I had ever
stolen anything. What was this “Skittles Zone” business when I first walked in?
Was this a code word for “Hispanic”? I’m sure someone would have called it
“racist” if it was a term was intended to denote a black person, and it was
obvious that the term was concocted by someone who wanted to a make a political
“point.” I’m not ignorant about the world I live. Nor am I a thief; that was
Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown (a judge recently denied a St. Louis newspaper access to Brown's juvenile criminal record--apparently extensive--claiming it was only "pertinent" if he had committed a murder). But
apparently it is “OK” in this society to conceal racism, stereotypes and
prejudice when cloaked behind the mendacity of “ethnicity.”
I can’t do too much about bigotry
like this, but there are occasions that I can make people feel uncomfortable
when they exposed in what they “see.” The morning before, I had finished my
business at a self-serve Laundromat and was leaving. As I was passing a Shari’s
Restaurant just across the parking lot, I noticed some tall blonde female who
was about to enter the place when she appeared “uncertain,’ and then beeped her
car twice, which just happened to be parked right at the front door of the
restaurant. I knew that a “red flag” had been hoisted in her mind when she saw
me, and it “concerned” her, even though it should have been obvious by the
heavy load I was carrying and the proximity of the Laundromat that I wasn’t
there to break into her car.
I wasn’t going to let her get
away with this, and called out “Adolf.” Apparently she understood the
reference, as I had hit some kind of nerve. The tall blonde hesitated, knowing
that her prejudice and stereotyping had been exposed. Then with some amusement
I observed her walk back to her car. I just stood in place watching her, and
obviously in guilt and personal discomfort, she decided that she was going to
get into her car and drive away, because she wanted to show me that she wasn’t
prejudiced; she was just “beeped” her car and looked “concerned” because she
preparing to “leave.” Or perhaps she decided she should leave now, because
having just aroused the ire of a “minority,” he might actually carry out the
action she feared.
I walked a few paces further so
that she wouldn’t see me, but I was curious about what her next move was. I
observed that the car backed up about two feet, and then reversed course and
parked in position as before; she apparently assumed that I had walked on, and
it was now “safe.” But I had not moved on. Having observed her pathetic action,
I decided that she needed one last demonstration. When I saw her get of the car
again, I moved back into her sights and assumed the “Heil Hitler” pose, which
appeared to discomfort her immensely. I’m certain it wasn’t very often that
she—and other allegedly “tolerant” and “unprejudiced” people like
her—encountered people who employed cultural and historical references of hate
to expose them. But I’ll give this
person some “credit”—after all, she did display a certain degree of
self-consciousness; many of the local rednecks and Nazis don’t have any
self-consciousness about their bigotry.
In the end, however, this all
about what people “see,” not what the “know.” As I’ve said before, you only
have to be racist against one group to be a racist—even if you try to conceal
it behind the hypocrisy of “ethnicity.”
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