There were lines at every register at the grocery store. I scoped the options and picked the register that had one person waiting even though she had a full cart of items. A full-to-the-top cart of items. I second-guessed myself for a moment but none of the other lines seemed much better so I decided to wait. Once the scanning starts, it's just one transaction so it won't take that long.
I held the stocking stuffer I'd snagged for my dad and watched the black woman ahead of me--early forties?--place a rack of ribs on top of the first layer of food items now covering the conveyor belt. (Ribs aren't racist, are they? I just noticed them because they looked appetizing.) She glanced at me and my one item and went back to unloading her cart. It still looked mostly full, but I'd accepted the need to wait so it didn't bother me.
She looked my way again and I could see her considering my single item versus her multitude of items. I knew I could ask to go in front of her but she was rightfully there first and I didn't mind. The person in line ahead of the black woman finished her transaction and was gathering up her things.
The third time the black woman looked at me, she said, "Just one thing?"
"Yup." I smiled and shrugged.
She summoned me with the inch long nail on her forefinger and said, "That's just silly, you with one thing waiting behind all this."
As I slid past her cart and her, I said, "Thank you."
I handed the cashier my item and paid for it in cash and proper change. The cashier handed me my receipt and bills and said, "Have a nice night."
"Thanks, you too."
The black woman was still unloading her cart, her back to me, but I paused and said, "Thank you very much."
She turned and said, "Sure thing," at the same time the cashier said, "You're welcome."
A year ago on TTaT: Long Shot
I like when people have done that for me and I'm always emphatic with my thanks. And, as a result, I try to do that for other people as well. I hate when other people give me the stink face for it, though
ReplyDeleteShe was definitely in the clear for the stink eye since she still had quite a bit to unload even after I left. So it was win win! :)
ReplyDeleteActual, I think ribs are racist (I only base that on a Dave Chapelle skit I saw).
ReplyDeleteI love it when people do that. We do it for people too. :) Sometimes I cannot believe how full people's carts are! It always makes me wonder how many people they are shopping for, if they only shop once a month, or if they are having a party.
First, I should clarify that ribs, in and of themselves, aren't racist. The question is whether or not they are part of a racial stereotype. It's not one I'm familiar with but as soon as I typed my sentence, some offshoot of recognition made me wonder.
ReplyDeleteWhy then mention race at all? It's not relevant to my story.
Well, a while back I read a discussion about race in scifi/fantasy books. Several minority authors weighed in. I remember one saying that when you don't specify someone's race or gender, the default (in the US anyway) is to assume the person is a straight white male. Even if the reader is black, asian, female, queer, or another minority.
That made a strong impact on me. Now what I write is basically nonfiction so I'm not going to impose another race on someone I encounter, but I can make minorities visible when they turn up. It's not always graceful but thinking about writing in this way is fairly new to me. The idea is to do so without stereotypes.
Again, I didn't notice or mention the ribs because she was black. It was a large package on top, and hey, I like ribs. Wondering if it was a stereotype didn't occur until I was writing. But is it wrong to write if ribs are part of a stereotype even if that is what happened? Maybe.
Perhaps I should've mentioned the Lipton noodle/rice packets I saw her put on the pile later. I noticed those because I like them too. I didn't because that happened later in actuality and I prefer not to take license when it's not necessary. However, I do try to truncate when memory fails or the story stalls with the mundane- the latter is why I didn't mention the Lipton packets later.
***
As for the full cart, who knows? I would guess a combo of shopping for a bunch of people and stocking up less frequently. Maybe she was going to donate a bunch of it to a charity.
LOL, I knew you weren't being racist, I was just saying I saw ribs used in a racist manner in a skit so I thought maybe they had a connotation to them.
ReplyDeletekilax: Oh, I figured that. I just wanted to explain a bit more generally, not specifically to you.
ReplyDeleteSort of the whys behind including a parenthetical about racism in my story in the first place.
Oh, okay! Thanks for explaining! For a sec, I thought I had come off the wrong way :) I think it is interesting to hear that readers assume characters are white males. Sad, yet unsurprising.
ReplyDeleteIn the US? They actually said white? Are you sure they did not say Caucasian?
ReplyDeleteJackie Brown: They may very well have said "Caucasian" rather than "white." I was paraphrasing because I knew finding the link again would take a lot of time. Where I live in the US (and I suspect in a large chunk of the country) it's still common to use "white" to mean "Caucasian" in casual speech/writing. I meant no offense.
ReplyDeleteDo you consider "white" to be out of line? How about "black"?
I am black, and I am definitely not African American. I am a French black woman who lives in the US. The only time I resent the word black, it's when it is used in French by people who seem unable to pronounce the French word noir (like it's an insult). I wrote the comment because I find the use of the word Caucasian instead of white so ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteSalut, Jackie Brown: Merci pour votre commentaire! J'espere que vous etes bien.
ReplyDeleteI went to high school/college during the height of political correctness, so I'm sensitive to it but also think some people go overboard with it. As you point out, African American doesn't apply to many people with dark skin even if they do live in the US.
I agree that since black has come back into accepted usage, it doesn't make sense to replace white with Caucasian. In looking up Caucasian for its origin, I was amused to see the definition start with "often offensive." Ironic since it's now often used in an effort to be politically correct.
Seems the best thing to do is to ask rather than make assumptions and keep the dialogue open.
The reason I find Caucasian ridiculous is because, to me, a Caucasian would be someone from the Caucasus region. How it came to designate white Americans, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteAnother word I can't stand is ethnic: ethnic hair, ethnic food... I don't know what that means. Reminds me of a show Tyra Banks did a few months ago; she kept asking people about their ethnic backgrounds, and about their nationalities (most of the people in the audience were Americans) and insisted on calling a Brazilian man Hispanic. It really looks like she did not know what she was talking about.
At first, I thought you were French.
Exactly. Caucasian is problematic in the same way African American is. It's region specific.
ReplyDelete"Ethnic" covers a lot of ground in its definition, but I think it's use is intended to convey anthropological differences among groups without using terms of race.
As for the nationality thing, it irritates me sometimes when people born in the US cling to other countries as their identity. Sure, a person may have ancestors/relatives from Italy but that doesn't make them Italian. However, there is something to cultures being passed down as well as genetic traits particular to certain regions, so I'm willing to give slack as long as people aren't adamant.
I suppose that's a strange quirk of the US, the predominant association of being from elsewhere.
Well, look at this comment about the new Karate Kid.
ReplyDeletehttp://movies.yahoo.com/photos/movie-stills/gallery/2223/the-karate-kid-stills#photo0
"the original karate kid was latino or italian not white.....the second karate kid was white....and now its a black kid but hey who cares about the race anywayz..."
I guess this is a very confusing subject.
I would've said Ralph Macchio (1st Karate Kid) is white, American with Italian heritage. Just goes to show there isn't much consensus, at least in the US; that fuels the confusion.
ReplyDelete