"What are you," one of the Postal workers asked Ron. "Racially".
"You know" I told her abruptly (she is not a customer, ever). "That's a very rude question. If I asked you that, you'd pitch a fit". She was very black.
"I wanna know" she said petulantly "What are you?"
What is, he, a dog?
"I find it really insulting" I continued. "You want to know 'What he is' so you can put him in a box, and then decide if you like him...."
Ron interrupted me, and explained, he is a Creole, which is a mixture of Black, French, and other races (in Ron's family, also Spanish and Native, although he didn't share that today). Oh, she decided. I could see her thinking: he was black enough .
Ron spoke a little Creole, which impressed the hell out of her. Another woman assured the first, not to worry, Ron wasn't from New Orleans. "Things are very different up north" she said, and then went onto implied that Creoles from Northern Louisiana were much higher class.
I battled extreme indignation - what is it, Ron has to prove his pedigree? To everyone? WTF?
I was also just, utterly, disgusted. I mean, really. White people are accused of being racist, yet she was the most racist person I have encountered in a long time.
I don't give a flying shit about your genetics. If you want a Bible, you get it, and I pray for you every day. If you're a customer I'll make sure you have a good vending experience. If you're a driver I will strive to be the fun, appreciative, client they like to see on the manifest. I don't care where you're from, I care where you're going.
I'm colorblind, I married a black man. I live amongst blacks, asians, and hispanics. I serve everyone in my ministry.
Her relentless pigeonholing really pissed me off.
Maybe I should tell her I have some Native blood, so she can put me in the proper box.
That is, if I cared!
2 comments:
I used to think my dad was racist because he asked everyone "where your people from?" but he wasn't he was curious and really wanted to know and some folks do they really want to know, my dad was brown kind of like Ron in color tone. I used to hate it and was so embarrassed when he did it. Then one day when I was rolling my eyes like "please I am not with him and he really is not racist" a woman said to me "don't be ashamed of him people do not know the answers to questions unless they ask" racist or not it is true and we should never obstruct. The more we talk to each other the less racist we become.
Wow. .people wouldn't know what to do with me : french , native American ,English, Scottish, Jewish. .
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