All I wanted was some Orange Juice and what I got was racism...

So this happened to me this morning...

My wife left for a debate tournament early this morning, and as I leave for work, I decide that I want to stop off at the Safeway, to grab an Orange Juice and maybe a low quality but oh so sweet donut. As I get in line to make the purchase, there's a woman standing in front of me, probably in her late 50's to early 60's. As she reaches into her purse to grab her wallet, something falls out of her purse onto the floor. I see it fall, and try to get the woman's attention...

"Excuse me, I think something fell out of your purse."

She says thank you before she turns to see me, and when she does, you'd have thought she saw a ghost. Her eyes almost popped out of her head and her mouth was just hanging open, like she was waiting for me to throw a brass ring into it. And this stare went on for a long enough time (five seconds or so) that I felt the need to ask what was up.

"What's wrong?"

"I didn't expect you to be Black."

Now this is one of those instances in life where, if i were cut from a different kind of cloth, I would have just tried to ignore her, and leave the store. But I'm not cut from that kind of cloth: i'm cut from the kind of cloth that, at the expense of my own happiness sometimes, have to ask the critical question...

"Why didn't you expect me to be Black?"

Now we ALL know this is a loaded question. There are a variety of was to answer this question, however, all of them make you look kind of like a jackass. But being able to read people, I knew where this was going, and I knew I was in for what could only be classified as "unintentional racism 101"...

"You're so articulate."

Preface: I've lived around white people my entire life. This means that I see how white people treat other white people. I've seen how white people treat smart white kids as opposed to how they treat smart black kids. I've spent large chunks of my life with some of the smartest people, white and black, that anyone could ever meet. And I can think of exactly ZERO times when a smart white kid ever had anyone use the words "articulate" or "well-spoken" to describe intelligent white kids. Why is that? Because it is expected for white kids to be intelligent and articulate. Don't get me wrong, it's allowable for them to not be, but those are kids who fall below expectations, and even some of those kids get to be President of the United States of America (a much easier job once the Scion has had it), but it's not a surprise when a white person is.

However, the degree of arrogance, the dismissiveness of experience and the inherent racism in her claim was something that was not to be ignored. That being said, it's a situation that has to be handled with sort of kid gloves. The disadvantage to being Black sometimes is, when you bring up issues of race, people assume you have too much of a vested interest, and thus you can't be objective- which means your information is to be questioned. In the academic world, that specific lived experience gives an unique perspective to your experience, which gives further authenticity to the experience: nobody would ever say that the experiences that an anthropologist has with the people he works with would give them a biased interpretation of the experience and should be rejected or scrutinized, it's that experience which legitimates the knowledge in an academic setting. This means I have to recognize that because these words are coming from a Black face in a Black place within a Black space, that I had to explain this to her in a way that didn't run her off, making her unwilling to interact with other Blacks in these public spaces...

...then i realized I was tired and didn't really care what she thought...

"What is your your level of education?"
"Didn't graduate from college."
"Why would you assume I'd be less articulate than you, seeing as you don't even have a college education. What is your parents level of education?"
"They're both college grads."
"Mine are both PhDs. Once again, why would you expect me to be less articulate than you? Oh, it's because I'm Black. I can't stop you from BEING racist, but if you'd stop SHOWING your racism in public, I'd be most appreciative. Now I'm gonna get my OJ and go to work, as opposed to selling drugs."

Now if you think that's the way I wanted to start off my day, you're on a bad batch of Heroin. I'd rater get kicked in the balls than to have someone look at me like a ghost and then tell me, for lack of a better word, "i saw your black skin and assumed you'd be stupid, and when "articulate" stuff came out of your mouth i was SO STUNNED that all i could do is stare and say offensive shit when asked what was wrong."

And here's the kicker: if you'd asked her, she'd have probably thought she was giving me a compliment on sounding smart, not noticing the overarching claim it makes of my people to make that assumption...