2005-07-02

Bah!

What is it about my face that makes strangers feel they can share their racist comments with me? I can't figure it out. Just because I'm a white girl doesn't mean I'm a racist, okay people? This is an example of what I'm talking about: I was working a demo at a store on Thursday, and there was a family shopping in the supplement section that had three kids who were running around like little banshees. The kids were loud and quite annoying. One of the girls who worked there came up to me and said something like, "oh, those kids are driving me crazy!" I agreed with her because they were driving me crazy, too. Then she goes on to say, "And what really makes me angry is that the whole family is probably in this country illegally, and we have to pay for their kids to go to school."
Oh, I see. Because this family is of Latin descent, that means they are illegal aliens and we are "paying" for their kids to go to school? What the fuck? Not only do I not agree with that, I found it offensive. But I wasn't in a position to say anything back to the girl, since I was there working for the store. So I just said something like, "Well, I don't know this family, so I have no idea if they are here illegally or not." Then I walked away from her.
I get other comments from people from time to time as well. Someone I was working with was telling me a story about a friend of hers, and she mentioned how her friend met "a black guy" in a bar and ended up going out with him. I said, "So?". And her response was, "I just didn't know she was that kind of person, that's all." "What kind of person?! A person that dates guys they meet in bars?" I asked her. But no, she was of course referring to the fact that the guy was black. Come on. It's 2005. I'm grossed out by the fact that this is even thought twice about.
Anyway, rant over.