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Standing in the sun for too long
[2 minute read ]
A funny thing happened to me in my local shop the other week. I was standing in the queue to be served but ever so slightly to one side because there is a coffee vending machine quite close to where customers are served at the counter. I was next to be served but when the customer in front left, a large man suddenly stepped forward and jumped the queue in front of me.
'Whoa! What yer doing?' I asked. 'I'm next'.
'Well, you weren't in the queue.'
'Yeah, I am. Get back. Just because you're a big man doesn't mean you get to push in.' I told him. He backed off but left a few items on the counter.
'Here, take your items.' I growled, handing him a pasty, a roll and a tin of Coke.
While the shopkeeper attended to my order, I turned and stared at the big man.
'Why are you staring at me?' he demanded.
'You think you are more important than me, don't you?'
'I am!' Ooops!
The customers in the queue drew up chairs and huddled to make bets. One of them opened a bottle of wine and another handed out packets of crisps. Someone dimmed the lights and turned a spotlight on us, and a young lad pulled a keyboard from his school bag and played discordant chords.
'Why? Because of the colour of my skin?' At this point it is important to point out that my shopkeeper is Sri Lankan and is obviously brown. I also have brown skin. I knew that the big man thought I was a friend of the shopkeeper solely because of the colour of my skin, and he thought I was waiting to talk to him, probably in a foreign language, when the queue disappeared.
'You're judging me by the colour of my skin', I continued, 'and you've assumed that the colour shows that I have an Asian heritage, right? But I can trace my ancestry for both parents back to the 13th century and all of my ancestors are Europeans. None are Scandinavian though. You're not racist, you are colourist. This is suntan!' You only have to look on the inside of my arms to see that I have white skin. I went on, 'You're pathetic. You think you are superior to someone with a suntan. Racist is bad enough but diminishing someone simply because they have a different skin colour is just plain madness. You're an idiot!
He didn't respond. I knew he wouldn't. Racism is initially based entirely on looks; skin colour. He had made a mistake jumping the queue and the reason he did it did not even fit the circumstances. Suddenly, the marker (skin colour) that allowed him to feel superior had dissolved right in front of him.
Instead, he turned to the person behind him and encouraged him to go ahead of him. 'Go ahead, I'm not in a hurry.' The customer declined his offer. Plainly, the big man was trying to claw back some dignity. I had already noticed that he was a workman or had stopped to buy his lunch from the shop. I always let workers on breaks go before me because they have a limited time to rest and scoff their food. If he had apologised for jumping the queue at the outset I would have just let him go ahead of me. However, I do not reward bad manners.
After I had paid for my purchases I turned to the big man now close behind me, stifled my amusement and said, 'Apologies. Apologies', and then held out my right hand forcing him to juggle his selection into one big paw so he could shake my hand. He was dumbfounded and reciprocated with, 'Sorry.' Lesson learnt.
He had caught me on a rough day. I almost never make waves and I certainly wasn't in a hurry. I just get fed up with people fumbling through life and here was a prime example of buffoonery that just 'got my goat'.