Doesn't mean he is stupid, Ma'am.
I was in the public library today waiting in a long line to borrow a new economics book. There were three clerks working at the counter but the line was held up by an old white lady. She seemed to be upset by the clerk who was handling her check-in. I could hear the clerk, sitting low, speaking broken language, sounded like he might have some sort of disabilities. I couldn't see him but I was imagining a person with down syndrome struggling with these simple tasks. The old lady eventually called the white mid-age clerk nearby to sort her problem.
At that time, I caught a glimpse of the sitting clerk: he was not disable, he was an Asian in his late 50s.
The white clerk tried to explain to the old lady that the Asian clerk did nothing wrong. Actually he did check-in twice to make sure the book was taken off her record. She murmured and insisted to have all her record printed out, which the white clerk obliged.
The woman waiting behind me was a bit disgusted: "What is her problem? Doesn't she know that you can't check a book out twice? Just because he is a minority, she thinks he is stupid?"
I turned around and said: "That was condescending."
She stared at me through her sunglasses like she was stunned and angered: "What? My comment?"
I replied: "No, her attitude."
No comments:
Post a Comment