Racism, anti social behavior, and me…

Walking towards the exit of a paid membership warehouse/store, one elderly women appeared from the sidelines to take a place in front of me. There was not much of a line, and there were two people checking receipts. One of the people checking receipts was white, and the other was not. The elderly woman, stopped behind the only customer being checked out by the white receipt checker. The other receipt checker stood waiting. As I walked up, I said to the woman, “The other man is not busy and you can be checked by him.” She told me in a rather severe tone, “I prefer to wait….”

Seated at the poker table a few days ago, a young man wearing a t-shirt with a sign printed on the front of it. The message on the t-shirt said something to the effect of, ‘Anything you say or try to tell me is wrong, and will be ignored’.

The elderly woman is hopefully a relic left over from a time I am happy we are leaving behind. The saying on the shirt is quite a social stigma the young man should be trying hard to change, or work on. If anyone took offense to the young man’s shirt, it was nothing compared to the handicap the young man places on himself by wearing it.

I find the polyester pants, and shirts worn by some old men quite amusing. My wife finds my choice of semi wrinkled shirts, and pants that are too big for me, but still in good condition, terrible to be out in public in. I do not care for the overpowering bug spray perfume some elderly women choose to bathe in before going out into public. Many older people find the droopy, baggy pants and tattoos sported by the younger crowd disturbing.

We all have our own collections of personal likes and dislikes. Most of our likes and dislikes are harmless, and baseless. Our like and dislikes really make no difference to anyone but us. If someone chooses to wear fall colors in the springtime, wear black every day, or eat spumoni ice cream, it really only matters to us when we see it.

When someone publicly holds a view that judges the worth of a person on something superficial, that is a concern. It is a problem for them, and for the people they are judging. The woman for example…she has no idea who made and prepared the items she purchased. I am sure the thought never even occurred to her about who made them, or who raised, picked, or processed the food in her cart. She was overly concerned about who was going to check her out. So concerned in fact, she chose to inconvenience herself.

In social situations such as a poker room, contacts are made, friendships are formed, and jobs or business opportunities are occasionally offered. That will never happen to the young man whether or not he is wearing his socially limiting t-shirt. He will never be befriended or offered anything by anyone in a position to help him because he chooses to be overtly anti social.

The elderly woman revealed a distasteful social aspect that would not let me stop and help her pick up her things if she dropped them. The young man was told by another player they recognized a particularly destructive personality type in him. I have the idea that both the elderly woman and the young man have a lot in common. One person is old and bitter with the world and the other is becoming more bitter every day.

The young man has a chance to change, although it is probably too late for the elderly woman. I would prefer they both change their thinking – for their own selfish interests, and mine.