MineralMan (69,083 posts)
The Unreasonable Fears of White People
I'm not exactly sure where the fear started for middle class white people. Fear of almost everything. Locked doors, no kids playing outdoors in neighborhoods. Fear of strangers, fear of some unnamed calamity. Fear of anyone who doesn't look exactly like they do. It's worst in the suburbs, in my experience. Front doors that are never used, with people driving into their attached garage and entering the house only after the garage door is down. It's sad and unhealthy for society. Here's an example from a couple of days ago:
I live in the northeastern corner of St. Paul, MN, a city of about 300,000. As it happens, the nearest supermarket is in a close-in suburb, along with most other shopping. So I go there. I went to do my weekly shopping the other day and worked my way through the store, filling my shopping cart. I had more stuff than was comfortable for the self check-out, so I decided to go through a regular check-out lane. Typical for this store, there were too few checkers for the number of shoppers, which is why I normally use the self-check. Anyhow, I looked down the line of check-out lanes. All of the open lanes had lines. Ugh. But wait...there's a lane with nobody in line. Way, way too much detail.
I headed for it. There was one shopper ahead of me, while all the other lanes had four or more carts lined up. Why was this one so short? The reason was obvious: The checker was a young black woman, in her late 20s or early 30s. Did I mention that this was a suburban supermarket? Because I forgot if I did. It's critical to this bit of fiction.People had apparently decided that they preferred being in a line of four carts than to go through a checkout lane with a black woman as the checker. Really? Pics or it didn't happen. Funny how whenever these assholes are wearing a faggoty fedora and strumming a guitar, they have pictures of it coming out of their butts, but instances of complete and utter RACISM, they seem to lack technology.
Were they afraid of this young woman for some reason? I can't imagine why that might be. She was young, efficient, and pleasant. Why would people do that? I got my groceries checked out, said, "Thank you," and started bagging my stuff. There was nobody in her line, even though the other open lanes were still backed up with multiple shopping carts. I had finished bagging my groceries before anyone entered that check-out lane. Nobody. The light was on, indicating that the lane was open, there was no line at all, and yet nobody chose that lane. The reason was painfully obvious. Painfully obvious, indeed: this didn't happen, you stupid constipated old ****.
Welcome to suburban America. This is the problem. People are afraid of a checker because she is black. What a world we live in! It makes me very sad. What's sad is how you wouldn't have dreamt of making this up if that thug hadn't attacked a cop.
Tue May 22, 2012, 09:54 AM
Star Member MineralMan (69,096 posts)
I'm logged in here most of the time during the day from my basement office, which my wife calls "The Dungeon."
I don't believe a word of this. No one cares who the checker is.
Well, I take that back. I know of one I try to avoid if I can, but wouldn't give up a short line to do it. He's weird, rude and slow. Has nothing to do with race.
Response to Dreamer Tatum (Reply #24)
Tue Dec 2, 2014, 09:53 AM
Star Member cwydro (14,323 posts)
50. Over the years
I've noticed a lot of these "grocery store" anecdotes that various posters tell. The OP who posts the story is always the great liberal hero.
I actually enjoy reading them. Some are more creative than others.
Response to cwydro (Reply #50)
Tue Dec 2, 2014, 10:43 AM
Star Member cherokeeprogressive (18,071 posts)
72. I do love the "you won't believe what I heard the fundy say in the..." stories.
They are some of the best reading on DU, especially if the storyteller goes into detail about how they put the offender in their place.
Years ago there was an epic thread about how someone was at the Post Office and started shrieking at the postal clerk for asking a question on a form or something like that. Most of the people on the board that day took industrial-strength exception at the treatment of someone who was merely doing the job their employer expected them to do. I'm positive that as the OP was making up the story, he thought he'd get major PROPS for "talking truth to power" or some shit like that. That's now how it went down at ALL. It was one of my favorite days as a DUer.
I never fail to read posts about restaurants, check-out lines, bumper stickers, and the like. You can't buy entertainment that good.
We pick the line with the least amount of people, but also base it on how many items people have in their carts. A line with ten people might go faster than the line with two Obamaites in it on the day their EBT card is refilled.The wife was late last night because she got in the line with just one of those. The woman kept telling them to total her purchases because she didn't know if she enough left on her card to cover it all. First problem they had was a quart of milk....can't buy just a quart of milk on EBT card....BUT.... the woman had already opened it and poured some in the babies bottle. Cashier took the quart back to dairy and got a gallon....WAL-MART....the evil WAL-MART marked the opened quart up as "damaged goods" and didn't charge her for it. Then they finally got to the last item, a package of cookies that she didn't have enough left on the EBT card to cover....she just absolutely had to have those cookies.....SO....the cashier had to go back through several items to find the one item she could do without but still leave almost nothing on the card.
:racist: :whistling:
That thread is a hoot! I just read everything that was there and now ... I'm going to refresh the page! LOL
KC
I love how MM is so reasonable and courteous in his replies, the dude is either a serial killer or a pedophile in my opinion. He fits the profile.
headed for it. There was one shopper ahead of me, while all the other lanes had four or more carts lined up. Why was this one so short? The reason was obvious: The checker was a young black woman, in her late 20s or early 30s.
The wife was late last night because she got in the line with just one of those. The woman kept telling them to total her purchases because she didn't know if she enough left on her card to cover it all. First problem they had was a quart of milk....can't buy just a quart of milk on EBT card....BUT.... the woman had already opened it and poured some in the babies bottle. Cashier took the quart back to dairy and got a gallon....WAL-MART....the evil WAL-MART marked the opened quart up as "damaged goods" and didn't charge her for it. Then they finally got to the last item, a package of cookies that she didn't have enough left on the EBT card to cover....she just absolutely had to have those cookies.....SO....the cashier had to go back through several items to find the one item she could do without but still leave almost nothing on the card.
The wife was fit to be tied when she finally got home.
100% true story: I was in Wal Mart in Milwaukee a few months ago. A couple, Holder's people, had 2 shopping carts full of stuff. They kept taking inventory and tracking on a hand-held calculator what things cost as they were rung up. They also were saying "that will get $10" and "that is good for $15" and the like. They didn't look like convenience store owners (she had a "dress" that was basically a shirt that barely covered her VJ) -- when they were done it was just a few pennies shy of $100 (I was behind someone who was up to the same thing). Then out came the Wisconsin Welfare EBT (east to spot) and I mentally slapped my forehead: They were SELLING the stuff they bought on OUR tax dime to the neighbors!
And, the old white lady in front of me was doing the same -- she had about 6 pounds of butter in different brands, the same number oif quarts of milk, again in different brands, and other generic stuff like cooking oil.
I thought she might be a baker but the different brands told me she was "filling orders." Again, welfare EBT (so this isn't a race thing).
We taxpayers are nucking futz!
We might be the only nation in the world where our poor people are severely obese.
I black woman gives me Brazilian waxes, if anyone should be afraid I should but I'm not. She could inflect terrible pain on me...yet I keep coming back.
"My God, I keep inflicting terrible pain on this woman, and she keeps coming back, forcing me to look into her vertical frown!"
- BEG's Cooter Wrangler
I black woman gives me Brazilian waxes, if anyone should be afraid I should but I'm not. She could inflict terrible pain on me...yet I keep coming back.
Response to Dreamer Tatum (Reply #24)
Tue Dec 2, 2014, 09:53 AM
Star Member cwydro (14,323 posts)
50. Over the years
I've noticed a lot of these "grocery store" anecdotes that various posters tell. The OP who posts the story is always the great liberal hero.
I actually enjoy reading them. Some are more creative than others.
A polite way of saying...MineralMan wants to feel like the great white savior coming to rescue the poor, unfortunate black wretches from their misery. It's laughable, really. What grown person worries about these kinds of things?
MM is full of number 2.
Grocery store lines aren't scary. You know what's scary? A big ole party full of drunk Mexicans. Someone inevitably starts a fight and then there's chaos everywhere. Went to a few of those when I was a kid.
Cindie
Sounds like the same thing that happens at most parties where there are lots of people. Just the weapons seem to vary between the races.
Knives are the weapons of choice at Mexican parties.
Cindie
Guns at black parties and fists at white parties.
:picsneeded:
100% in agreement!
Didn't this bouncy already get posted by someone else a month or so ago?
Oh please, I shop at a Walmart, a ShopRite and an Acme and I'd say 70% of the people who work there are black and that stops NO ONE from using any lane. What a pantload!!
franksolich's all-time favorite bouncy:
posted by asdf2231, shortly after the elections of 2008:
http://conservativecave.com/index.php?topic=17904
No cops jumping out of bushes, but hilariously funny anyway.
franksolich's all-time favorite bouncy:
posted by asdf2231, shortly after the elections of 2008:
http://conservativecave.com/index.php?topic=17904
No cops jumping out of bushes, but hilariously funny anyway.
Mr. Benchley, is that you?
A black woman gives me Brazilian waxes, if anyone should be afraid I should but I'm not. She could inflict terrible pain on me...yet I keep coming back.
*I made two typos ::)
That bouncy reminds me of the TiT episode wherein he refused to sell lawn trinkets to a repuke.
Was that before or after he shot a gun at Dick Cheney?
Knives are the weapons of choice at Mexican parties.
Cindie
TiT never shot at Cheney.
He claimed to have pointed a loaded shotgun at Secretary of the Navy John Warner, for trying to board TiT's river boat without permission.
But he was never charged or disciplined because he was ...TominTib. Apparently he had some special dispensation that allowed him to do things that would put others in jail. I miss the old days of DU, the current crop can't hold a candle.
TiT never shot at Cheney.
He claimed to have pointed a loaded shotgun at Secretary of the Navy John Warner, for trying to board TiT's river boat without permission.
And when he returned from Viet Nam, he tossed a whole box full of his Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, and other decorations off the Golden Gate Bridge.