So I went to Cub foods today because I needed things I just can’t find at the coop including ice cube trays, Glad cling wrap and junk food cookies like Keebler’s fudge stripes. Now in the last 2 years I’ve slowly cut out food that doesn’t add value to my health goal. That goal is to live to be 120 years old. As I went down the aisle, I passed up coffee creamer, saltine crackers, soda pop and breakfast cereal. Sometimes I get things from this group but I am much more aware how my food choices affect my body and the world economy.
Strange food classifications
| “Ethnic” Food | Not Ethnic Food | |
| Flour Tortillas | French Bread | |
| Rice | Pasta |
Apples are from Turkey and entered the US sometime in the 1600′s. Potato‘s are native to the Americas but until I read Angela’s Ashes, I thought they were from Ireland. I would like to see the food organized by health benefits rather than by how much the manufacturer is paying the grocery store in kickbacks.
As I was checking out at the self checkout (same one they have at IKEA), I heard a woman in the next check out row say, “Aren’t you going to ask her for ID too?”. My stomach dropped. I was done bagging my stuff so I listened as she repeated herself. The checkout guy had asked her for ID but then didn’t ask the woman after her for ID after he’d told her they ask everyone for ID.
I spoke up. I told her, “Me too” and walked over to offer my support. I wasn’t worrying about if we could change anything that day. I wanted to make sure I communicated that I supported this woman. She told me she came to this Cub twice a week and she couldn’t beleive this was happening. I told her I could feel her pain. I told her about my similar experience at Best Buy. I began looking around to see who was coming over to address this problem.
The important thing is to raise questions when you’re in a situation that doesn’t seem right and support those around you who speak up.
The woman who had been behind her began to say, “I’m in a hurry; I need to get going”. I rolled my eyes because my first thought was, “We were enslaved for 400 years and we waited”. I don’t push old people out of the way because they’re too slow on the stairs.
This same situation had played out for me at a local Best Buy. I was really upset that I had paid with my debit card and had been asked for ID yet the woman behind paid with the same method and wasn’t asked for ID. I called back to the store later that day and the store manager said they would work on “Sensitivity Training”. Well, that’s not enough. People should be taught how told to check their sterotypes at the door.
If you think about it, the first people to bounce checks were White since Black people couldn’t get checking accounts. This isn’t a Black/White thing but rather that people still feel they can depend on stereotypes to guide their daily life. As humans, it’s was a good rule of thumb for survival. If every morning we go to collect food near a river and there are some hungry looking lions, for survival we should collect that food at a later time and bring protection.
As humans, we all benefit when others give us a chance. I hope acceptance of others will continue to grow.
Was it racially motivated? Was the checkout guy at Cub foods on Lake street a racist? If he was of Asian descent, could that still make him racist? These questions I don’t have answers to. The only experience I know here is mine so I can only make a guess as to how everyone’s day was going besides mine.
Photo Credit Steelers’ Night at Giant Eagle, originally uploaded by KitAy.
