Many people assume that if you live in a diverse and inclusive community, racist incidents aren’t there or will be much less frequent or at least dialed back. But back in 2009, when I was 3 years old, my family was driving home. My Mom, who at the time was pregnant with my sister, was driving and my dad was in the passenger seat, while my Abuelita (Grandma) and I were riding in the back. The plan was to stop at a Pizza Hut on the way to get some food, but as it was getting dark my Mom missed the parking lot entrance and turned onto the next street thinking that there would be a side entrance. As she realized that there was no side entrance, she quickly looked for a driveway to turn around. Driving back out, she saw a man standing in the middle of the road and pointing a rifle at the minivan. My Mom slowed down and the man began to move closer to our minivan while yelling racist remarks, including things like “Go back to your country!” and cursing at my family while keeping his rifle pointed at us. After many intense and horrifying minutes of this, he finally moved aside and let us drive through. We quickly moved into the Pizza Hut parking lot and called the police. Once inside, the employees told us that similar incidents with the man had occurred before. After waiting over 20 minutes for the police, we decided to just head home because everyone was so shaken up.
We left before the police ever got there, so we’ll never know if they even showed up or if they dealt with the man. The seemingly harmless mistake of taking a wrong turn, turned into what could have been a deadly situation. This is just one example of a racist incident in a community that considers itself inclusive and progressive. So no matter how inclusive and not racist we think our community is, just remember that we must stay vigilant because there will always be someone out there with a different idea of equality.
This is a picture of the scene where this incident went down. The Pizza Hut is now a Cottage Inn and the man lived in the Antique Art shop. You can see the street that my Mom accidentally turned into.
Comments