Share Away!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Panic at the Thrift Store

It's no secret that I have a bit of a temper. I grew up the black sheep of the family, abused, the youngest of 4 and my ugly duckling faze lasted until my Sophomore year of High School. As I grew up I learned from college and a couple of Awesome employers, how to control my temper in order to out smart my opponent and win confrontations. Kind of an intelligent Shock and Awe as it were. 

Anywho, my kids and I were at the local thrift store this evening. (I love thrift stores, don't judge ;) ) It's a HUGE store so we were there for about 45 minutes.  While we were there my daughter and I saw a very tall pregnant (about 8 months or so) woman (African. Not a racial thing it matters, you'll see) with her 5 year old son. She was really going at a Hispanic boy about the age of 9 about a scooter he was on. She was getting pretty angry accusing the boy of taking it from her son. She asked him where is mother was and for him to take her to her.  My daughter and I had been seeing this 9 year old riding the scooter since we got in the store. When she asked him to take her to his mother I paid no mind. Let the mom's hash it out. About 20 minutes later we are checking out and who do we see? The very tall (at least 5'10) African woman screaming at a very small (5'1) Hispanic lady about how her son took the scooter from her little boy. The Hispanic woman had no chance to speak or argue because the other woman was screaming and not giving her the chance to speak. My daughter says to me, "mommy, that boy has had the scooter since we got here."  I know he has honey.  As I turn around again I saw the Hispanic woman turn around to try to leave. My initial point was to let the screaming woman know that the Hispanic boy had the scooter the whole time so she would stop yelling at the other lady. So I walked away from the check out and said, "ma'am, I'm sorry, I think you're yelling at the wrong person. I've been in the store for 45 minutes and this little boy has been on that scooter the whole time. Well that got her attention. She turned to me and screamed that I was a liar, she had been there since 4:45 and her son had it, blah blah blah. It was 5:30 at this time. I said, well exactly, you and I have been here the same amount of time. This boy has had it the entire time. I think maybe your son just wants it and might have told you a fib. SHUT UP! YOU JUST SHUT UP! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU! (she has a very thick accent)  This has everything to do with me. You screamed at a little boy who doesn't understand what you are saying and frightened him and now you're screaming at his mother who is much smaller than you and you're frightening her, so for shits and giggles let's pretend I'm her and you were screaming at my son. Just to level the playing field a bit. SHUT UP! I AM NOT STUPID! YOU THINK I AM STUPID! I AM EDUCATED AND VERY SMART! SHUT UP! Don't pull the "I'm African and all Americans think I am stupid so I can say whatever I want card!" I understand you perfectly and it's obvious that you are very intelligent. It's also obvious that your son wanted that scooter and lied to you to try to get it! I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU! GO AWAY! At this point we are about 7 feet away from each other. She walks right up to me (towering over me) and say's GET AWAY FROM ME. I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO??  I said, "at this point my best advice to you is to get out of my face before you do something you'll regret.  She turned around and walked away.  I went back to check out. My kids are laughing hysterically. They've seen this before. The cashier says thank you to me and we finish my checkout.   This crazy bitch say's (loud but not screaming) "stupid white ass woman". Game on.  What the fuck did you just say to me? (as I'm walking toward her) I said you are stupid. After that? What? What did you say after that? She almost whispers, "white". What the fuck does the color of my skin have to do with this??? Are you actually throwing racials at me??  You just went after a child and woman because you assumed they were beneath you because of their race and you're going to pull that card on me????  She turned around and didn't say another word.  The cashier thanked me again and we left.  Point of the story? I have no ability to stand by and do nothing when a person is being attaked because they are smaller, different race, don't understand or being ganged up on. It wasn't the first time, and I highly doubt it will be the last.   ~Leslie

No comments: