I've sucked at blogging... When I'm not working, I'm either knitting, partying, watching soccer or spending time with my family. Today I was actually supposed to attend yet another party, but I bought 3 yarn balls so I decided to stay home and knit instead. So, I haven't had time to blog. Nevertheless, I wanted to share this experience with you guys:
Today when I was at Walmart buying a pack of socks and 3 wonderful yarn balls (picture to come.. I'm so excited!) I went into the express checkout line to pay for my new crap. I was talking to the chick in front of me and the lady behind me about how awesome knitting is and blabla...
Then a guy was talking to the chick in front of me and I heard them talking about the Walmart in Airdrie. I butted in and asked, "What about the Airdrie Walmart? Is it better or worse?"
The guy said, "Oh, way better!"
I asked, "Oh, is it bigger?"
He said, "There's just way more white people there."
Shocked, but too classy to get into a public fight with a stranger, I sarcastically said, "Uhhh... thanks?"
He said, "Yeah, I hate to be a racist, but it's just the way it is." and he went off about what made the Airdrie Walmart better. I immediately ceased to participate in that conversation.
Surprisingly, I wasn't offended or mad. More so because I'm used to people saying stuff like that to my face, and working in customer service thickened my skin. So I let it go and forgot about it within 30 seconds. Then it was the guy's turn, so he was gone. Then it was the chick in front of me's turn, but before she left she whispered "That was really rude" and I agreed (though it took me a split-second to remember what she was talking about), then went into my register.
After I paid I was walking out of Walmart towards my car and the guy had finished paying the same time as me and was going the same direction as me. He came up to me and asked if I thought he was being rude. I don't like drama with strangers, so normally I would've said no it was fine since I had let it go anyways but for some reason I felt that I should be honest. So I told him (as friendly as I possibly could), "Well, how was I supposed to take that?"
He was suuuuuuuper kind about it and apologized to me. I was so surprised! I was expecting him to be like "Oh yeah, lol, what ethnicity are you?" which I ALWAYS get. Instead, he put his head down and said he was sorry. I could feel his sincerity and sympathized. Note: He was at least 6'4, buff, and full of tattoos -- thus, sensitivity from his part, particularly after a racist remark, was unexpected. He was seriously so humble and kind, I think I even felt the spirit (crazy)! He then proceeded to explain, "it's cuz you look white!" -- my feelings then went from Christlike love to borderline confused. Maybe he was referring to my good English or something.
His friends joined in and named certain ethnic groups that they consider to have a different mentality. I politely interrupted and told them (in a gentle, non-confrontational way -- in more of a conversation tone if that makes sense) that we can't judge people based on their skin colour. I explained that it's not skin colour that determines a person's behaviour or manners... but the way they were raised, how long they've been in Canada, whether they've acclimatized to the culture, if there's a language barrier, if they're educated, and I even said, "I'm half-Asian, quarter Italian, quarter Portuguese and I'm way more polite than a lot of white people I know!"
They nodded their heads the entire time and genuinely agreed with everything I said. I told them, "But you know what? I completely see where you're coming from. I work in customer service and I deal with tonnes of people from different countries and I definitely see a pattern with the way they treat me. Some people can be really, really rude and it irritates me too! But I always try to keep in mind that they come from countries where they're used to people taking advantage of them and everyone's kind of on their own. To them it can be instinctive to be what we call rude to protect themselves." They agreed again and we ended up introducing ourselves to each other and became friends!
I thanked the guy for taking the time to approach me and apologize to me. It really was a noble thing for him to do and I was so touched by it that when I got in my car I felt so much love for Him and I can only imagine how much God must love him.
Lessons learned:
- God loves even the racists. Who knows, that may even include Hitler as well! :O haha
- EVERYONE has good in them. So don't hate on random strangers just because they said/did one stupid thing. It's so easy to make terrible assumptions of a stranger. We need to take the time to get to know them before making those judgments.
- We spend way too much time getting offended and judging others. If we take the time to try to see them as God sees them, forgiveness is a breeze.
My most important lesson of all?
*Humility and kindness are the most noble attributes one can have*
Anyways, I was really touched by this experience and felt prompted to share it with you fellow followers.
Love you all! <3
That is a really cool experience Kim!
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