Dad, That’s Racist!
Our daughter called out her father on his thoughtless remark because I was left speechless
There’s a reason that I, as a black woman, no longer discusses race with my husband, a white man. After thirty-plus years I know enough about the two of us to know we don’t see eye-to-eye on this subject, and probably never will.
Still, he managed to leave me speechless at dinner the other night, when a discussion during supper got out of hand.
At this point in the story, I intervened with the remark that I guess my husband couldn’t believe his white privilege wasn’t working for him.
He was telling myself and our seventeen-year-old daughter about a confrontation he’d had that day in a local shop. He said he’d gathered a few items to buy, then remembering he hadn’t picked up a newspaper, went to the door of the shop to step out to get a newspaper, which is kept on racks just outside the store.
The man behind the till stopped him, telling him he couldn’t leave the shop with goods he hadn’t yet paid for. My husband explained he was just stepping out for a newspaper, but the shop assistant insisted. My husband then got into an argument about how he was a regular in the…
