Today I had to take Milo to the vets office for his vaccinations. My two year old son was with me, sporting his monkey slicker and hat. As shown below...
I am in a crowded waiting room among all white middle age possibly middle to upper class men (purely an observation). I am sitting there and a gentleman makes (momentarily) polite chit chat with my son.
He says "Is that Micky mouse on your hat, why no, that's a monkey". "Do you like monkeys" he asks my son. My son politely nods "yes". Then the man leans back and says "why that boy looks just like Barack Obama". He chuckles to himself for his cleverness.
My polite smile instantaneously fades as the rush of red creeps into my face. I can literally feel the thumping of my heart in my ears. The room once filled with casual conversation becomes dead quiet. Possibly from the mans stupidity, possibly because it was obvious that my face was about to spontaneously combust, or possibly because they also heard the pounding of my heart.
There I sat in the midst of a moral quandary. The good angel on my right shoulders whispers softly in my ear " Think Mahatma Gandhi... Show him compassion. Leigh, show this man the amount of class that he is so obviously lacking". The devil on the left side screams, " tell him you're about to shove your foot up his hind end to go along with the one he so indiscreetly shoved in his own mouth".
I was just about to take a side, the vet tech saves the man from receiving a new appendage, and calls us back for Milo's shots.
Now here is my opposition... Politically you don't know my stance(FYI- I root for team Leigh). Racially you don't have a clue how many shades of yellow live in my house hold. And last but not least how dare you impress your bigotory views on MY CHILD, a child you don't know any back ground on!
No matter ones opinions we should share an amount of politeness not to impress those values on complete strangers.
In closing I say "what a jackass" and will go on happily with my day.
I think he is adorable in his monkey slicker and hat.
He IS adorable, and there's no excuse for bigotry or racial predjudice, expressed or otherwise. That whole story just makes me ill.
ReplyDelete(and monkeys are awesome)
I am sorry to say, that sort of ignorance is still abundant in the south. I love my southern home of Tennessee, but it still stuns me when I hear of these incidents. I just don't understand it. I always feel compelled to say something, but I don't always say what I am thinking. I am sorry that your little boy was exposed to such a pig. I like the idea you had, of "rearranging", shall we say, his foot!LOL And what a cute little frog!
ReplyDeleteI fully admit to prejudice; it was caused in me by the very people toward whom it is directed. It was not instilled in me by friends, relatives or neighbors. However, prejudice and bigotry are not the same thing, despite what most people think. The man in your story may have been one, or he may have been the other; what's for certain is that he was a jerk. You really should be ashamed of yourself, though, for insulting donkeys around the world by your unflattering comparison! :-)
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