Small Town Life

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade
-from the musical South Pacific

A little while back I ran into an older woman I know at the coffee shop and I stopped to chat. The woman who manages the coffee shop was right next to us cleaning off a table as we talked. This older woman, who I have known for ten years, started telling me about a out-of-state trip she was going on that weekend. Since it was a short trip she would not be able to see all the things she wanted to see while there. She wasn't sure how she would decide which things to see and which things to pass on. Then she playfully started chanting:

Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,
Catch a nig*er...

At that point I blurted out, "Hey! Hey! Don't even use that word!"

She clapped both her hands over her mouth and then brought them down and said meekly, "I shouldn't have said that."

The other woman cleaning the table said, "That right, you have to be careful now a-days because they're everywhere. You can't say anything anymore!"

The older woman nodded in agreement and started again:

Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,
Catch a....

She stopped, searching for the next word. I said firmly, "Tiger..."

At the same instant I said tiger she said, "Monkey by the toe."

I always feel disappointed when I find out someone I think is a good person turns out to be a bigot. And I always feel insulted when someone assumes I think the same way they do just because I have the same color skin as they do.