I Should Have Been Surprised...

I ran to the grocery store today to pick up my lovely government handouts of milk, cheese, and way too much juice (WIC). While the cashier was checking me out and chit-chatting with me, I made some comment that maybe it was a bit chilly outside and that I should have put the girl in a warmer jacket. "Oh, no, it's not that cold outside, she looks plenty warm. It's the ones who don't put shoes and socks on in the middle of winter that piss me off." She says. And then, without even blinking, she leans forward ever so slightly and says: "It's always those Spanish people, it seems. What is that, they don't believe in shoes?" I am quite certain that I looked astonished-- a la deer in the headlights, and I didn't quite know what to say. So I said nothing. I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but alas, I did nothing. I just stood there silently until we were finished. I was surprised that she felt no shame in sharing her blatant racism with a total stranger, and at her place of work on top of that. She knew nothing about me, for all she knows I could be married to an hispanic man (or woman, for that matter).

Do some people see a person of the same race as themselves and feel like they can say grossly inappropriate things? Is there some unwritten rule that this is okay? What year is it again? I am shocked, but then again, not. What does a girl do in this situation? I know that there is something that I could have said that would have been tactful and sent the right message, but in that moment I just couldn't find the words. Aargh!