October 11, 2007
Shame on you, grandma!
Speaking of discrimination, I haven’t had the misfortune of being targeted directly since I got here September last year. The DC Metro region is pretty much heterogenous. Anywhere you go at least three different languages are spoken within earshot. Last month, however, I was shocked to see how some people are still stuck in their small, pathetic world of racial intolerance.
Rose and I were invited to lunch by another Filipina (we’ll call her E) we recently bumped into. E happens to be married to a former Navy man and so we were treated to lunch buffet at the Andrews Air Force Base’s country club. The food was superb (Re’Sean was chowing down a plateful of steamed mussels like there was no tomorrow) and the conversation was great. What happened on our way back to the car was what spoiled an otherwise great outing with friends.
As we piled into the car, I saw an elderly white woman frantically pointing her finger at the car parked next to us. When I asked E’s husband what the woman was saying, he said she'd told him to be careful not to hit the next car. What was wrong with this particular scenario was that she didn’t own the freaking car. What was wrong with this scenario was that she didn’t work at the parking lot either. What was wrong with this scenario was that she wasn’t speaking to a bunch of teenagers who are just learning how to drive. What the heck was she thinking? That a grown black man who happens to be in the company of Asians could not maneuver his way out of the parking lot?
I told the husband via text message that in my mind I wanted E’s husband to run over the old hag.
What?
I love old people. Non-racist old people.
