Patricia Lee,
Cortez, CO
Being Asian, I sometimes wonder if what a White person said barely veiled an intentional race-related insult. However, I outwardly ignore these suspicions and give that person the benefit of the doubt, if it is a stranger.
While there is no such thing as truly colorblind (except in the medical sense), I do believe some people just have skin that is TOO THIN, and I do not mean that in any medical sense.
This realization hit me from one specific encounter that I probably will never forget. I was washing my hands in a public bathroom when two Black women were also in there. One of them emerged from the stall and proclaimed, “Mission accomplished.” I instantly chimed in, “Hey that’s exactly what my husband and I say when our dogs poop or pee!”
Those women said not one word but instead glared at me with hatred. In a kneejerk example of having Too Thin Skin, they assumed I was comparing my dogs to Black people. Gimme me a frickin’ break! I should have followed up with “AND sometimes we say it to each other when we come out of a bathroom, too!”
But their looks were so baleful that I didn’t engage at all. If someone wants to hate based on an innocent comment, that’s their problem. I have better things to do.
