but i called it prejudice. this weekend my husband and i went to louisiana to take care of my mother in law who is dying of cancer. she lives a few major towns west of new orleans. we were asked no less than three times if we were evacuees.
the only conclusion i can come to is that they saw two black people - coupled with the fact that they news (contrary to normal coverage) have been showing a lot of black people from new orleans - and they assumed that we were from new orleans.
now a little cognitive thought and attention to their surroundings they would have realized several things:
1. we were not dirty from being stuck in nola for days.
2. our car had texas plates
3. we were eating ice cream at one place. i doubt the evacuees are concerned with ice cream. they need the basics -- food, water, clothes, etc.
4. at the hotel we were changing clothes often
it's unbelievable how people use heuristics to come to faulty conclusions. but i swear if i'm asked one more time while i'm here, i'm going to lose it!
the only conclusion i can come to is that they saw two black people - coupled with the fact that they news (contrary to normal coverage) have been showing a lot of black people from new orleans - and they assumed that we were from new orleans.
now a little cognitive thought and attention to their surroundings they would have realized several things:
1. we were not dirty from being stuck in nola for days.
2. our car had texas plates
3. we were eating ice cream at one place. i doubt the evacuees are concerned with ice cream. they need the basics -- food, water, clothes, etc.
4. at the hotel we were changing clothes often
it's unbelievable how people use heuristics to come to faulty conclusions. but i swear if i'm asked one more time while i'm here, i'm going to lose it!
1 lovely comments:
L said...
you can call it like it is.... I work with a lot of social conservatives, and there is a LOT of racial predjudice spilling out all over the place from the aftermath of the hurricane. Makes me very angry