Hate is an Ugly Thing

Yesterday, I came face-to-face with ugly hatred - up close and personal.

I was in the check-out line at a local grocery store, waiting for the mother and her 10-ish year old daughter making their payment for their purchases. The mother was showing her daughter how to pay using a credit card, and for this reason it was taking a little longer to complete the transaction.

The woman behind me says "Excuse me," while she tries to reach around me to put her groceries on the check-out conveyor belt - I was standing at the end of the belt unable to move up. I glance over my shoulder and tell her there's no room for me to move up (because of the mother-daughter check-out instruction going on in front of me.)

She then says, a bit louder, "Excuse me" again and I repeat there is no room for me to move up.

Next she pushes her cart into my rear-end, saying more loudly, "Excuse me." I turn around and look directly at her and say, "I said there is no room to move up, so why did you push your cart into me?"

She says she asked me politely and when I didn't comply, she had to make her point. I told her this was no way to act and she went off on me saying...

"Just because you are white doesn't mean you have a right to treat me this way. I may be newer to this country (I think she was African), but I still have rights , even if I am black!)

I could not believe what I was hearing! I pointed my finger right at her and said, "Oh no you don't! That has nothing to do with it. There was no room for me to move up and you had no right to hit me with your cart!!"

She yells back at me, "You think that was a hit! You want me to hit you! I'll show you what I can do to you!"

In the meantime, the check-out clerk and bagger are shrinking down - no help to defuse the situation. She was still yelling at me as I left both the line and the store after paying for my few purchases. (I'd been buying ice cream for a family birthday party I was holding at my home in a couple hours for my daughter and mother-in-law.)

Needless to say, I was shocked by this exchange and I'm stilling reeling today - hence this posting. There have been a huge influx of immigrants into our community over the past 5 years. So many new comers in fact that I sometimes feel out-of-place in the small town I've called home for over 23 years now. I'm sorry to say this episode has only served as an explanation point to that fact. I doubt if I will be going back to shop at that store again for some time to come.

Why?

Because, I don't feel like putting myself into situations where I am abused for no reason. Because, this woman scared me - plain and simple, simple.