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Open Mouth, Insert...
Apr. 24th, 2018 10:14 am ...Racism?
So, there I was at the bagel shop. It's a place I go to regularly enough that I know the names and life situations of several of the employees. We chat, like do you, about life, and one of the longtime employees there (someone I hugged when I found out her brother died) notices that I've gotten a haircut. I happily take off my ball cap to show it off and start rambling, somewhat filterless because this is our first stop before I've even had coffee, and I start talking about how I might dye my hair. I say that I've dyed my hair before. Then, I go on to blurt out this masterpiece: "My hair was blonder when I came up here to go to college and I looked around and saw that all Minnesotans are blond, so I dyed it black."
The second this ridiculous thing leaves my mouth I realize I'm the only white person in the room.
I have just said "ALL Minnesotans are blond," literally erasing everyone in that room, but my lily white self.
Wow.
Can I have a do-over, please?
I suspect I made things worse by clearly noticing my mistake, being so horrified that I don't try to apologize, but instead yammer on about other stupid things.
I confessed all of this to my family in the car, of course. My plan is to try to apologize next week, and I will, but, damn it, the damage is done.
*I* was someone's micro-agression today.
Yippee.
So, there I was at the bagel shop. It's a place I go to regularly enough that I know the names and life situations of several of the employees. We chat, like do you, about life, and one of the longtime employees there (someone I hugged when I found out her brother died) notices that I've gotten a haircut. I happily take off my ball cap to show it off and start rambling, somewhat filterless because this is our first stop before I've even had coffee, and I start talking about how I might dye my hair. I say that I've dyed my hair before. Then, I go on to blurt out this masterpiece: "My hair was blonder when I came up here to go to college and I looked around and saw that all Minnesotans are blond, so I dyed it black."
The second this ridiculous thing leaves my mouth I realize I'm the only white person in the room.
I have just said "ALL Minnesotans are blond," literally erasing everyone in that room, but my lily white self.
Wow.
Can I have a do-over, please?
I suspect I made things worse by clearly noticing my mistake, being so horrified that I don't try to apologize, but instead yammer on about other stupid things.
I confessed all of this to my family in the car, of course. My plan is to try to apologize next week, and I will, but, damn it, the damage is done.
*I* was someone's micro-agression today.
Yippee.
