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Real Life Event with Racism

After Dick’s encouragement, I am releasing to people who are interested, concerned and even unaware of racist happenings, some right here in Pasadena, stories about what I, and people like me have experienced.

 Once I have shared these “War Stories” that I want you to bear with me, I will extol the beautiful, kind, and generous things I have, and still am, experiencing in my relationships with people who don’t look like me.

 Our most common bond is our shared humanity, which we see first and foremost in each other, before we discover the other things that bind us.

 It has been, and it still is, a wonderful journey.  I can’t wait to tell you about it.

For today, here is a story of a little incident that took place and is part of my memories:

I was in a department store once and upon reporting to the cash register to ring up my purchases, the White associate started speaking to me in a heavy accent, replete with Ebonics greatly exaggerated.

I said “What part of the South are you from?”  Hearing my clear, accent-free, mid-western speech, he turned red and said more quietly, embarrassedly, “I’m not from the South.”  His speech was accent free, like mine.

I said, “Oh, you had me believing  that you were so far back in the woods, down south, that I was wondering how you got hired in this store.”  I smiled and walked away, leaving him regretting having mocked this Black person, having “assumed,” and given himself permission.

Lora Harrington-Pride