There are times that I have been known to put my foot in my mouth, to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but I have NEVER set out to say something to hurt someone on purpose.
I had breakfast this past week at this little diner that I like. It's just a little neighborhood diner but it gets a lot of men that are out doing construction, road work, etc. During the week it is usually the same people. And that usually means 2 or three black men on occasion. On Saturdays more blacks seem to visit the place, and they are usually part of a couple. Why am I telling you this? I just want to set up my story a little. The fact is that it is a mostly white diner. It was not designed to be that way but it is.
On the Saturday I was there there were 2 black couples having breakfast. One couple at a table and the other at the counter.
This was the day this old white guy -- who is there practacially every time I go in there -- decides to talk LOUDLY to someone at another table. He talks about the fact that his family had owned slaves. That was not enough, he told how much one the females sold for and that this little town was named for her.
I wanted to crawl in a hole. Just wanted to die. I could not believe he was saying the things he did. Now granted he didn't use the N word or talk badly about blacks, but come on, he had to know that it would be hurtful to those couples that were in there.
I told you that there aren't many blacks that come in the place to say that he had to have noticed them. I mean face it. It is a small diner -- maybe 15 tables? -- so it wasn't like he didn't see them. This is why I felt that he chose that day to tell his story. He wanted to make sure a black person heard his story. Why else would he have talked so loud to another table that was well within ear shot of that black couple?
I am still shocked just thinking about it. I wanted so bad to go up to the people and apologize for what was being said. Am I wrong to think he did this on purpose? Wrong to think that it had to make those couples feel not only out of place but just bad all over?
11 comments:
thats so awful, I'm a black person and I know that would have offended me. He was obviously doing that on purpose. Its sad that there are still ppl like that in this world
Unfortunately, people like this man still exist. The absence of God in his life as well as his ignorance stood out more than the black couples. Nothing had to be said. gloria
I have no idea why some people try to be so mean. The only thing I can think of is that by him putting people down he made himself feel big. He felt if he belittled them then he was big. Lori
Its really sad that the world is the way it is. Tolerence is what we need.
Holly
I am a white Southern female and I am appalled at what that man ( if you want to call him that ) did. Makes me want to smack him.
I feel the way you do, disgusted that one human being could be so hurtful to another human being. I really don't get it, I never have. We are all human beings, we all deserve to be treated like a human being, who cares what color we are. It shouldn't matter, although I fear it may be many generations away before many people feel that way.
Susan
amazing how all that family wealth couldn't reserve him a brain!
What a HORRIBLE thing to have happen. I would have cringed in my skin if I had heard that kind of talk. I am sure the two couples were botherd and hurt by that as I am sure most everyone there felt the same. There are those people who are just so calus and do not care what they say or who it hurts. What a shame!! Dont worry Karma is commin...........
I might have told him to shut up myself!
I haven't experienced that kind of verbal racism. There is one local restaurant that I've been to for lunch several times. They call themselves a down-home Louisiana style cooking restaurant. The owner (an elderly man) and his son are often there. When they are they usually stop by the tables to chat with the patrons. I've noticed, however, that the owner has never stopped by any table that I've been seated at. I'm always in mixed racial company when I go there.
It took a while before I noticed it because I don't go there often (we have so many great places for lunch) and I'm usually too busy enjoying my lunch bunch buddies...but I don't think it's coincidental. I'm still trying to decide if I want to stop going there or if I just want to let him deal with his own 'issues' and continue to dine where I please.
I would bet that the couples have experienced situations like this before. Very sad. Someone should have told that man, politely, to shut up. It would have been nice if an employee at the diner had done so. --Albert
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