Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Things that make you go Hmm. Date:   9/2/2020 11:41:42 AM

Recently, I have had two things happen to me in Montgomery that left me scratching my head and wondering.  

Two weeks ago, I went into Chicken Salad Chick.  There was a line to the left side of the door and a woman, who happened to be black, on the other side of the door.  So I turned to the woman and asked her "are you in line?" because obviously, I didn't want to cut the line.  She looked at me and snapped yes, I AM in line".  She said it with a lot of hostility, like she thought I planned to cut in front of her  

So yesterday, I was in Costco, and there was a line with one person being check out (and the lines closer to the front of the store were longer.  As I got in line (as to be next) this man, who happened to be black, suddenly appeared out of no where and said "I was in line ahead of you, but I was standing over there."  Well, his cart must have been standing over there with him, because it definitely wasn't in front of me.  He only had a few items and I would normally let someone with less items than me go ahead of me anyway.  I certainly wasn't going to get into an argument with someone in Costco over line placement.  He jumped ahead of me.  But you know, given the racial climate in this country, I wondered if he was just a jerk, or if he did it because he was black, I am white.  

I have never thought much about race, because I generally take people as I find them.   If you are nice to me, then I am going to be nice to you.  I do get impatient with bad customer service, but unless it is really flagrant, I generally won't make an issue.  But there seems to be such an undercurrent of hostility lately, I find myself questioning what is going on.  Today, on social media - House Beautiful to be exact, I got called a racist because I commented that I didn't like what Michelle Obama did with the family quarters when she redecorated it - I thought it fought the architecture and the colors were muddy.  Another time I got called a racist because I commented that I didn't think that a dress that Meghan Markle wore was becoming to her.  I didn't know that decorating or clothing had a "race".