Why can’t people just keep their prejudices to themselves?
Why do they have to share?
Tonight after we got back from a long day out seeing the sights and taking a couple of short hikes, I went back outside to retract the camper’s awning before the storms forecast for tonight. When I was done with that, trying to be friendly, I struck up a conversation with an older couple who are camped right behind our camper.
After we had been talking for about ten minutes, they started complaining about the Indians.
Good grief! What on earth made them think I wanted to hear any of that garbage?
I’m normally a nice guy and not often very confrontational, so I just listened and didn’t say anything. I should have made some kind of excuse and gone back in the camper.
No, I should have told them that I don’t feel the same way as them and then excused myself — but I didn’t.
I missed an opportunity when the old man started talking about how his family came into this area. I then told him how my ancestors had left Tennessee and ended up homesteading in western Kansas.
However, I should have told him that one of those ancestors that settled in Kansas married a young Indian girl.
Of course that wouldn’t have been precisely true — but he needn’t know that.
Great-great grandma Olive Goad was of Indian descent, but she was also a descendant of French and American trappers.
I guess that’s my solution if I run into this in the future. If someone goes off at a tangent about Indians, I’ll just say, “Excuse me, my great-great grandma Olive was an Indian,” — and just walk away.
Why can’t people just keep their prejudice to themselves?
Why can’t people just get over their prejudices?
Comments on “Why can’t some people just…”
August 22, 2007
teeni @ 11:45 pm
Good point – if they just got over them, then they wouldn’t have to keep anything to themselves. Life would be so much nicer all around. Kudos to you for remaining civil throughout the conversation!
August 23, 2007
Opal Tribble @ 7:51 am
Hopefully, you won’t have any more opportunities to talk about it but if you do you can provide some input. I’ve noticed most people usually shut up when you say something. I had the same issue with a former boss several years ago.
She always had something negative to say about Caucasians from what I was told. She shut up (at least around me) when I told her my grandmother was Caucasian and Indian. She quickly told me she wasn’t referring to her. Oh really I said so everyone else but her? How is what you’re doing any different that other races talking badly about our race? That shut her up quickly. 
August 25, 2007
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A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011
