16 August 2009

Racism, Alive and Well in Silicon Valley

There's plenty of racist douche bags in this part of the world. Even being in the San Francisco Bay Area doesn't protect you from the ignorant Conservatives.

I've traveled many parts of the world and been subjected to a variety of racist comments and incidents. Most of them are of the less obvious type based on exclusion. Its only here in the US where I've personally experienced the truly ugly, violent brand of racism.

Yesterday afternoon I went shopping for groceries at the local Japanese supermarket. We tend to get our groceries from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods for everything except the specialty items needed from the Chinese or Japanese store. There's a strip center about 3 miles from home with a big Japanese supermarket, a handful of Japanese stores and a dive bar. Since its just after lunch, the place is packed and the only parking places are on the other side of the dive bar. No problem, the Japanese bakery is right next to the dive bar so I have to go that far down the mall anyway. So I park the car, scoop up Leia from the car seat, and the two of us walk to the supermarket.

There's a bench outside the dive bar upon which sat a lady in her 50s smoking a cigarette. When we cross in front of her she spits out to me, "Try American!" in the most hateful tone she can muster. At first I was shocked that Leia and I were the target of such vicious hatred. I simply kept walking and did the shopping. By the time the shopping was done I had overcome the shock and was ready to get into with this person; but, she was gone.

Tell me again, what makes America so great? It isn't the people.

6 comments:

Tracy said...

I'm glad Leia isn't old enough to understand. That ugliness is everywhere unfortunately, even in the enlightened parts of the country.

Unknown said...

I fully expect this type of racism to grow over the next few years and the girls will be well aware of it as they grow older.

Tracy said...

It will dissipate quite a bit as the elderly die off. There's quite a societal stigma in voicing racism these days, so as the generations hand off to the next, you'll see less and less of it. Unless wingers rise up again. *boo*

Unknown said...

Perhaps. I'm not so optimistic. And over the next 7.5 years (while O is in office) I expect racism will increase in both frequency and severity.

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