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Quiet Prejudice [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-29
Quiet Prejudices
At the Dollar General, I’m behind the counter with my coworker Dotty; a 60 year old woman who’s always complaining.
A man at the counter asks if we speak Spanish. I said “no, I’m sorry” and my coworker followed with “no, I’m in America so no I speak English” in a joking tone and decided to add that she would learn French before she’d learn Spanish.
Is she implying that she wishes the French won the war? Does she not know that he speaks Spanish because of Spanish colonialism and we speak English because of English colonialism? What is the history that she thinks happened?
Does she think that the America’s were only colonized by the British?
Or does she think that in the beginning God created America and called it the USA and put white English speakers on it? I don’t know.
I’m sure that 95% of the time this lady is a nice person. Her crime is complaining too much and sliding in bigoted comments here and there. I’m sure if she was filling out a survey question that asked “are you prejudice” she would say no.
Prejudice is coupled with historical misinformation. She says “of course I don’t speak Spanish. Of course the language I speak is English.” She thinks “do you speak Spanish?” is a rediculous question for someone to ask because in “America” we should all speak English. She casually believes in a nation state.
Her prejudice comments over the time I’ve worked here are a prime example of why it’s so important we don’t loose our schools to DeSantis and the right wing of today. She believes in her prejudice as if it’s clear as day because it is based on historical inaccuracy or a lack of education where your left to fill in the blanks.
Here in Florida, in Robert E. Lee county, I have struggled along with many others to one by one gather signatures to get the Right to Clean Water on the 2024 Ballot as a proposed amendment to the Florida constitution. Little did I know that the state legislature can simply push a ballot initiative to the ballot, bypassing the petition gathering process. While my friends and I were out getting signatures, they pushed forward a ballot initiative that would try to make school board elections partisan (HJR31). This would greatly hurt counties in Florida like the one I am in, as the current process forces people to learn about each candidate. It hurts counties like mine who’s total number of democrats is half the size of the total number of republicans.
What kind of education did Dotty have? What were her parents like? Did she grow up in a red state?
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