Source: The Edmonton Journal
By Humda Malik, Edmonton Journal August 13, 2012
This is my country!” the man blurted as he butted ahead of me in line while I waited to pay for groceries.
Let me set the scene. I was in Walmart with my screaming toddler and my insistent preschooler discussing her school supplies. On top of that, I was fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Trying to stay calm, I picked a secluded lane, pulling up behind a lady in line.
As I waited, contemplating all the stuff I had yet to do, I looked to my side to see a man had taken my spot.
I informed him I was in line first.
That’s when the man told me that he did not argue with brown people and that this was his country. When I told him it was my country too, he looked at me incredulously.
I know arguments often happen at supermarkets. As a former cashier I have dealt with my share of anger and witnessed it between customers.
Arguments happen every day, but I cannot understand why some people immediately use such personal statements of race and nationality totally out of context.
What about me had irked him? The fact that I was wearing a hijab?
Was it my brown skin, my screaming brood or that I dared to question his behaviour?
Was he a native American perhaps? ‘Red Indian’ or ‘Eskimo’? If not, he was an immigrant just the same.