Keep Your Racist Trash Away From My Kid!

October 21, 2000

Okay, let me make this clear, I am angry. I don't even know if I have
ever BEEN this angry, but today I am spitting furious.

Today started out like every other. I woke up at a ridiculous hour (4
or 5 AM) and came online, looked in on my ratings and comments here at
WBM, checked the email. A few hours later, Amy, the light of my life
and the joy of my heart, crawled out of bed, and our day began in
earnest. Homeschooling, pumpkin carving, pickle making, and general
goofing off. Standard day hereabouts.

Then, later in the afternoon, Amy strapped on her rollerblades and hit
the trailer park roadways. We've lived in this trailer park for about 8
years now, great neighbors, decent area, safe as blazes. Good place,
right?

So Amy is skating along, headed over to visit with her friends Michelle
and Felicia who live a few rows over, when she comes across a recently
moved in "person", and I use the term very loosely, here.

Amy, being her usual incredibly friendly and sociable self, says a
hello, and a welcome to the park to the new resident. She always makes
a point of meeting the new neighbors and she usually bakes them a
strange little welcome to the park cake in her Easy Bake oven as a
housewarming. Nice kid, right? Right. Very nice kid. But before she
could even finish saying her welcome to this jerk, she snarls at my
little girl, "Go away, you little gook, and don't you come around here
stealing from me, all you chinks are thieves." The woman kept hurling
abuse at my kid until she burst into tears, whirled around on her
skates, and raced for our trailer, where she threw herself into my arms
and sobbed like I've only seen her do once before: when my grandmother
died.

When she was finally able to speak, I asked her what had happened, and
she told me. "I'm not even Chinese, Mommy! I'm half Japanese! Couldn't
she tell? Why was she so MEAN?"

Having just recently dealt with my own personal jerk, I have wrestled
with that question myself: why are people so mean? I wasn't able to
answer it when I asked, and I wasn't able to answer it when Amy asked.
All that I could do was hug her ever so tight and tell her that it
wasn't her fault, it was the woman's problem and that she must be a
really miserable being to treat a friendly and polite human being like
that.

Amy's father arrived home about an hour later, and they headed down to
the amusement park closing day party for season pass holders. I put on
my shoes, yanked my wheelchair out of the shed, and rolled over to meet
my new neighbor.

I didn't tell her who I was, at first. I just greeted her, asked her
how she was settling in. She told me that she was settling in fine, but
that she hadn't realized how many "not white" people were living here,
and she was worried that her trailer would be broken into, her trash
cans heisted, and her dog raped (well, okay, I exaggerate that last
one, but she was probably thinking it, the shrew).

At this point, I told her a few things. I said, "Lady, you're right,
there aren't that many white people here. But in 8 years, I've never
locked my door until tonight. Nobody has ever stolen from my space, my
shed, or my trailer. I've never been worried about the safety of my kid
or myself or my property, until today. When I heard that the Ku Klux
Klan and the White Aryan Resistance had moved in in the body of one
person, I locked my door and I got worried. Oh, and if you ever accuse
my child of theft or call her names again, then you will be dealing
with me. I may be in a wheelchair, but I can stand up long enough to
kick the stuffing out of you, you got me?" Then I wheeled around, just
like my kid had earlier, and came home.

Ten minutes later, the cops were at my door, because this woman made a
report that I had struck her with my fist. I had never even been within
three feet of her, but people like this will make accusations, won't
they. The good thing is that at least a half dozen neighbors were out
and about and saw the whole thing, and vouched for me.

Christ all mighty, why oh WHY do these people have to move in to MY
trailer park and hurt MY kid?

Only one other time has Amy ever been called racist names, and that was
when she was two years old and didn't have a clue what was going on.
This time, it hit her, and it hurt her. And Mommy turned into a
she-bear, protecting her cub.

What the hell is wrong with this world?