Friday, December 10, 2010

This just happened.

I ran to Academy during lunch to procure some roller skates for The Geej for Christmas. As I was standing there in the aisle looking at the skates, this woman was next to me, also looking at roller skates for girls. We struck up a conversation. She was buying two pair for her granddaughters. We both needed knee pads and elbow pads, but weren't too happy with the selection before us. Blah blah blah.

Then out of nowhere she says, "Well I was relieved when she finally asked for skates because the first thing she asked me for was a black baby doll! I think she's been living in Memphis too long!"

I just looked at her, too stunned to respond, and then walked away.

What made her think that this racist bullshit was okay to say to a complete stranger? For all she knew, my husband could've been black and the daughter I'd told her I was buying skates for bi-racial. But for some reason she thought my white skin and blonde-ish hair meant that I was part of the racist club that she belongs to.

If she can't even comprehend her precious white granddaughters playing with a babydoll with a different skintone, how do you think she feels about the fact that they have a black president.

Ugh. When will this shit ever end?

2 comments:

Lee said...

I think your response should have been to say, "My husband's black, and my daughter's biracial," and then wait for her to stammer out a reply.

Karla May said...

God, I wished I'd had the quick thinking and balls to do just that, Lee. But it wasn't until I was headed back to work, processing this in my brain, that I was able to formulate any sort of response.