This week
I drove into a service station to gas up and was met by a lovely young woman assistant
who was bright and cheerful in her tone and quite helpful. “How may I help you?”
she wanted to know.
I drive
a vintage Jaguar Sovereign saloon car that is a classic, and which was looking
its best. It had been washed and sparkled in the bright sunshine.
Meanwhile
another car pulled up to the opposite side of the pump and two men got out. She
approached them with a voice that was flat, neither friendly nor unfriendly.
She was all business.
“What
would you like?, she asked. These guys were driving in a vintage family car that
showed signs of its age and the guys were dressed in work clothes that
reflected that they were hard workers. Meanwhile I was dressed to reflect the
fact that I am a retired person. She therefore probably thought that the guys
were orange pickers and that I was a man of leisure who wore after shave lotion
that smelled like money. (Ha! Ha!)
In fact
I had been picking oranges from my own trees for my immediate use and Lord
knows I don’t have any money. For all we know the two of those guys might have
a ton of money hoarded away instead of spending it on a brand new top of the
range car.
Otherwise
those guys and I have the same thing in common: we are all black men.
It is so
easy to come to the wrong conclusion when faced with certain images. The
mistake is called judging the book by its cover, something advertising people
work hard in directing us to do, over and over again.
It’s all
a case of mistaken assumptions, but as long as that doesn’t lead to harmful
consequences it’s just life in action.
Copyright
© 2018-01-20
Eugene
Carmichael
