Hey, girakittie, that's an interesting post you've just made there.
I'm wondering why it was important to you to mention the participants' races in that post. I wonder first whether you would have mentioned their races if they were both white. This is a thread where many quotes are posted with only the barest of contexts, and yet without context they are still interesting— maybe even more interesting than they would be with context. You provide a good deal of context in your post (the store name, the brand name of the fizzy citrus drink, the man's tone of voice, the people's races), and I'm still not sure what aspect of the interaction you found important, odd, funny, interesting, or meaningful. What did it say to you?
Here's a different way you might have phrased your post, with somewhat different results:
Overheard in close proximity to a broken glass bottle, standing outside a pharmacy known for carrying the widest range of first-aid supplies and devices known to humankind—
Him: "You're not hurt, I don't know what you're making a fuss over."
Her: "Yes, I am. I have a cut right here on my hand." (She holds out her hand.)
Him (whining): "What do you want me to do about it?"
This might say to me that the woman is being obtuse by not getting herself an adhesive bandage from the store, or that the man is being callous for not getting one for her (maybe the dropped bottle was his fault, or maybe she has no money and is asking him to buy her some Band-Aids out of charity). But I think it's more satisfying when I can interpret it myself, which is true of a lot of these quotations. Furthermore it doesn't accidentally say anything about racial groups the speakers might belong to. (A good case could be made for removing gendered pronouns for the same reason.)
Often if race is pointed out where it seems unnecessary to understanding the interaction, I start to think it's because the person describing the interaction thinks the events mean something about a certain category of people. For instance, if I had described the interaction the way you did, some people might think I was asserting that white people are callous, self-centered, and whiny, or that people of African descent are helpless, obtuse, or always looking for charity. For this reason I tend not to comment on how I perceive people's race unless I really think it's important in some way. As someone very smart once told me, "Don't talk about race unless you're going to talk about race." |
