grocery store Archives - The Race Card Project

Nice small town has race issues.

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 1960's, Ferguson Card, grocery store, Hmong, John's Drive housing, language, neighborhood, race issues, Sara Przybylski, segregation, small town, Stevens Point, WI

Sara Przybylski
Stevens Point, WI

People think this is a great place to live, work, and raise kids… and it is. Just under the surface, though, there’s a little more going on. I grew up here. I saw my first African American person at the grocery store at the age of four-ish and loudly complimented his “really good tan,” much to my poor mother’s embarrassment. There wasn’t much in the way of cultural diversity (save a family here or there) until the late 80s, when Hmong refugees were relocated to, among other places, Central Wisconsin. Since then, our Hispanic population has also increased (some of the population is migrant, some year-round), and more African-American families and individuals have moved to the area. While the White population sits at around 85% or so, things look different than they did just 25 years ago… and some people aren’t reacting well.

I teach English as a Second Language, and work closely with many of these students who, a quarter of a century ago, would have looked incredibly out of place in our schools or on our streets. On the surface, things are OK… and then you start hearing things. We’ve gotten past the “Hmong people will eat your dogs!” fever of the early 1990s, but I’ve had (college-educated) friends make some comments that could have come straight out of the mouths of 1960s-style segregationists.

“I’m glad I don’t live in that neighborhood anymore. You know, the Hmongs.”

“They all used to live in the John’s Drive housing area. Why are they moving other places? It’s better to keep all those kids at one school.”

“They live, like, 12 people to a house. This isn’t the third world. We don’t live with four generations and an aunt and an uncle under one roof here.”

“I’m glad my kids are in private school so we don’t have to deal with all that.”

These are things I hear from people who I would otherwise have considered to be friends. College-educated, mostly. The half-truths and twisted truths and complete fabrications boggle the mind. The historical hypocrisy of it never ceases to amaze. Yes, many second-generation citizens are still speaking a language other than English at home. You know what? My grandmother, whose grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Poland before her father was born, failed kindergarten because she couldn’t speak English. So, you know… pot, meet kettle. Know your own cultural history before you shoot your mouth off about someone’s assimilation, or lack thereof. Last I checked, we still eat ponczkis before Lent starts and dance the Polka at weddings, and most Polish-Americans in Portage County are, what, fourth (Fifth? More-th?) generation at this point.

I love you, dear hometown, but you’ve got some work to do.

I’m sorry I’m staring at you.

October 25, 2022October 26, 2022 advertising, Amelia, assistant, Color, cracker, demo, different, grocery store, hyper, Jessica Flake, job, label, obsessive, OH, people of color, Race, slur, work

Jessica Flake,
Amelia, OH

I work as a demo’s assistant at an international grocery store which will not be named for advertising purposes. Being in Demo’s means I make samples for people to try of various products that we want to sell. I have been called various ‘slurs’ by some people of color in the past (mainly cracker, because I often work in the cheese department) and this has lead to my thinking in overdrive when it comes to race at work. If two people are coming at me and I call to one first instead of the other, have I done that because the first person was closer to me than the second, or because the first person was white and the second was a person of color? This leads to my constant hyper-awareness of the customers that walk past that may be a different race than my own, and I try to call out to them but then how do I know that I’m giving them more attention without meaning to? Thus, my indecisive glances that would easily be perceived as obsessive staring if I didn’t try to occupy myself in other ways.

No thanks; I am with him.

November 20, 2018May 27, 2022 9/11, airline, Can I help you, grocery store, I'm with him, interracial marriage, judge, MN, Rochester, TSA, unconsciously, white husabnd, Yuko Taniguchi

Yuko Taniguchi,
Rochester, MN

When I am in a line with my white husband at the grocery store, hotel check-in, or flight check-in, etc, I am approached by a staff with “Can I help you?” “No thanks, I’m with him,” I say. My husband also gets approached when I go through the line first. He says “No thanks, I’m with her.” It reveals how people unconsciously hold the image of a married couple in Minnesota. We are constantly reminded that people don’t notice that we are together.

I saw a group of “undesirables.”

November 14, 2017November 14, 2017 American, Cheverly, Danielle Giese, grocery store, kids, MD, society, undesirables, white neighbor

Danielle Giese,
Cheverly, MD.

This is what my white neighbor called a group of African American young men who were congregating outside of the a local grocery store. Apparently, one of them was showing off his new baby. I wondered if that will be how my sons will be described years from now. Will they be undesirable to American society?

They’re Shocked When I Speak Spanish

March 25, 2015March 25, 2015 accent, Baltimore, grocery store, Hispanic, MD, shocked, Spanish, stereotypes, T.W., white, worldview

T.W.,
Baltimore, MD.

I am White, non-Hispanic, but I go to Mexico on a regular basis so I have worked really hard to speak decent Spanish. I’m not fluent, but I can get around, and I have a believable accent.

So back in the U.S., there are times when knowing Spanish comes in handy. I remember one time I was in the grocery store checking out and a group of Hispanic guys were standing by the door talking. (Not blocking my way, just talking among themselves. I quickly said, “Con permiso,” and they looked like their jaws were going to drop to the floor. They made way and I said, “Gracias.” I could feel them staring at me the whole way out into the parking lot.

Things like this happen occasionally and I’m always amused at the surprise I give people. I hope it shakes up their worldview a little bit and makes them realize not all “gringos” are dumbass Americans who don’t care enough to learn even a little Spanish.

This man has your daughter

January 4, 2015January 4, 2015 1983, bi-racial, Boston, ct, daughter, grocery store, Karen Button, Middletown, mixed, stereotype

Karen Button,
Middletown, CT.

Phone call from the neighborhood grocer – followed by my husband on the line asking me to come down to the corner store to verify that he was in fact the father of our bi-racial infant daughter since they were used to seeing me with her and were refusing to let him leave the store with her. location: 1983 suburb of Boston

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