Reading charlie's journal

So I went to go pick up some meals in a can tonight. After I find my selections, I get in line at the checkout. I stand behind a middle-aged woman and her son - who is defiantly checking out Jessica Simpson on the cover of Cosmo. The people ahead of us are having problems with their debit card, and so the line grows behind us. The line starts to shift and get restless.

A black checker comes out, and opens another lane. Two Mexicans, a black man, and an Indian woman move to the other line. They were at the back of this line anyway. And the first line is left completely Caucasian. And for a second we stare at each other.

Is this just a coincidence?

Then we look ahead, pay for our groceries, and leave.

Please contiune to vote AND post.

Is this just coincidence?

I often think that such coincidences are just the universe' s way of letting us see the irony of our existence played out. Letting us see, for brief glimpses how negative we can be as a whole group of humans, so that maybe a few will go: "Wow, this needs fixing..." and then do some small or large thing to change it. I suspect that such instances just pop up randomly like variations on an equation. It's just the math of the universe giving us a fair shot at trying all the ways to solve the problem of learning to love everyone, even the schmucks. ;P

If mountain goats like living at high elevations, why do none live in high rise apartment buildings?

That's not a coincidence. It's an effect of years of training.
Depending on what part of the country you live in, it's better or worse.

For all the civil rights movemnt and attitudes of very loud public speakers and people who have tried to change things, it still remains the same in so many ways.
Like an infection that won't go away.

For years I've believed, because I read it in the history books, heard it and saw it on T.V., newspapers that the kind of mentality that makes people of other colors besides whites expect less humane treatment was just an euro-centric thing that had made it's way to america, and being america and how so often we do things in a uniquely weird and often distructive way, that what you witnessed was refection of years of tradition.

But not so, the effects and inheritances of slavery and barberism and other nasty things that makes people of one color or religion or culture or what ever else you want to put into that catagory, have been going on for thousands of years.
All over the world.

It's a mentality. And it goes like this: I'm better than you because I'm (insert what ever it is that makes one group of people think they have the right to lord over another group of people) and because I'm better than you, you will be behind me, or get out of my way, or die. And if you don't then you'll find out that I will run over you, take what you believe is yours, because to me your not human.

It goes on today. All over the place. And how the people acted in line, believing that the checker standing behind the line and the people having trouble with their debit card was in some way a slam on who they were, because they weren't white, a subconcious decision made by everyone who wasn't white.
IF everyone in line had moved to the other line so they could pay for their stuff, only due to the fact that the people were having trouble with their debit card, then it would have been just that.

The rules of preduice work both ways. And it's a sad thing.
Underneath we all are the same. Blood, bones, muscle, and other stuff. Take off the skin of a hundred people and you can't tell what color they were.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

This post was edited by harold_maude on Jun 05, 2005.