On Saturday I went to my local A&P to do some grocery shopping. When I was returning to my car I realized that there was some music playing by the dollar store (it is an outdoor strip mall). I walked a little closer and there were various booths set up and clowns and music. I had my youngest daughter and her friend with me and we approached the booths. They was face painting, henna tattoos, and caricatures artists to name a few and it was all complimentary.
There were a lot of people. The stands were starting to close down so we headed for one that the girls would enjoy. The nice lady doing the henna tattoos upon seeing me told me that we would be the last ones in line and she could only do one. I asked very nicely if there was anyway that she could possibly do 2 small ones so that each of the girls in front of us and demanded that she put a henna tattoo on his 2 year old son's arm. She very politely said that she was sorry but she was told to close and that there were no customers after us. He proceeded to ask her if she had a problem with his culture and if she thought that he and his family were stupid? The poor woman was trying to defend herself but this man would just not stop insinuating that she was denying his son a tattoo because of her prejudice against his culture. He said just put anything on his arm. I moved aside to let her know that if she wanted to she could give the tattoo to the little boy and not worry about us because it was OK. The man's wife was nicer and she intstructed her son to say thank you after he got his tattoo.
The woman manning the stand was visibly upset and we talked a little bit and I told her that she did nothing wrong and that it was unfortunate that some people ruin it for others. She explained how she could not understand how someone could act that way when they were not even paying as it was all free.
I don't know what gives someone the right to think that they can treat another human with such disregard for their feelings for their own personal gain. It was a very sad thing to witness.
Apparently the whole thing was put on by the mall and it was to show their appreciation to the customers. The girls got there tattoos and animal balloons and bubbles. If I had known about it I would have gone earlier so that the girls could have had more time to wonder around. I must say that as an ongoing customer at this mall I did feel very appreciated (despite the greediness and insensitivity of this one person).
I have never gone to the plaza customer days, I usually forget. But it is really to bad that man had to ruin it for other.
ReplyDeleteI wish I was there and brave enough to say "I have no problem with your culture but I do have a problem with the fact that you are a rude, man and should be ashamed of yourself letting your son see you behave in such a ill mannered way".
Shame on that man for stuping so low as to use the race card on a childs tattoo.
I like that little mall too I go there with Carolin when I'm up that way. The dollar store is great.
ReplyDeleteThat man is the reason some people have negitive oppinions of his race ( what ever that might be). Good for you for recognizing it was the man not the race. But we can hardly call his actions manly.
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