I met a racist today. Sweet guy, but still a racist.
I was leaving the grocery store, when I spotted this absolutely gorgeous Jaguar Vandenplas. On the odd chance he might be willing to sell it, I left a note on his car asking me to call me. Immediately afterwards, I realized I had left my keys at the check out, and went back inside to retrieve them. As i was exiting the store, I notice this short little guy exiting the British style pub, and start walking towards the car, with his remote control, and I see the rear tail lights light up on the vehicle. He approached the driver door and started to read the note I had left. Since he was already there, I went up, said hi and introduced myself as the person who left the note and asked him if he possibly might want to consider selling his car. He told me he would never sell it 'cause it was his "baby". We started discussing the car and he beamed with pride as he told me this was the same model that Queen Elizabeth gets driven around in, and the same model that Tony Blair drives etc., etc., I realized pretty quickly that this was his penis extender, the 4" lifts in the heels of his shoes to give him the extra height, the peerage title that his working class accent assured me he didn't have etc.,. There was NO WAY this man would ever consider parting with it. His entire sense of self worth came from this vehicle. knowing what a long shot it was, I suggested "Well, you've got my card, ...if you ever change your mind, let me know". Then he proceeded to tell me. "I won't change my mind believe me. Infact... a while back I was over near..." Then he abruptly stopped and said "I don't want you to think I'm a racist or anything because of what I'm about to say. I'm not a racist... infact, my daughter is married to..." Then he leaned in REALLY close, (so close it made me wish I was suffering from horrifically bad halitosis) furtively looked in both directions, and whispered the end of his sentence ".... a COLOURED".
So now it's all I could do not to burst out laughing. I said to myself, Judi keep your poker face. So now I'm waiting for him to drop whatever bomb he's about to drop that he thought might give me the impression he's a racist. And he proceeds to tell me "I was over near Stage West, and a woman in her 50's saw the car...." He goes on to say she immediately went up to him and offered to buy it. She was even willing to give him cash for it on the spot. Still he said no.
I couldn't figure out what the big concern was, or even why he would interject that into the conversation.
It just cracked me up. Anyway, we exchanged mutual pleasantrys for a great day, and he climbed his little 4' 11" frame into his self-esteem machine on wheels, and drove away.
Was the man a racist? Of course he was! Was he a bigot? hardly.
But he was like the vast majority of racists, completely oblivious to the fact that they are racists.
