...And Today was a Bad Day.

The day started out so well. The parakeet that I had found that I thought was sure going to die within the hour came back from the vet today, 3 days later, and is doing great! He's hopping around his cage and while he's probably not the friendliest of birds right now, he is not shy at all. Yay! I love seeing that I helped a bird and my fast actions with my other co-worker probably helped save him (most of the credit goes to the vet, though, of course). It was also slow today, so I kind of got to relax and work with customers and get stuff done

And then she came in.

I was busy, taking care of crickets and cleaning out their bins and whatnot. This black lady comes up to the fish wall and starts looking. I'm usually supposed to greet everyone, and I probably should have, BUT I was in the middle of something and us being a brand new store right now, most of my customers are usually just looking. So I continued with my task. Never did she come near me, look at me, or try and get my attention. Ever. I know this because I would glance up at her every so often. Anyways, then another lady (white this time) came up to the fish. I was still in the cricket bin, but the second time I looked up she was staring at me and acting like she needed something, so I asked her what she needed and I went about getting her fish bagged.

The first lady then proceeded to walk back to my manager, who was working about ten feet from me. I overheard my manager say something like "all you need to do is let one of us know" and then my other associate David started getting her fish, and I helped once I was done with the other lady.

It wasn't until after she left that my manager pulled me aside and she said "That lady just totally accused you of being racist."

My jaw absolutely dropped. What? How? I didn't even interact with her? How can someone accuse me of being racist when I never talked to them? I guess she told my manager that after I acknowledged her (which never happened) and she indicated she needed something (which also never happened), I then ignored her (which never happened) and immediately went to help the white lady. Thank goodness my manager happened to have been there the whole time and knows that 1. she never tried to get my attention and 2. that I never blatantly ignored her and then helped the white lady.

Apparently this is a Southern thing, my manager told me to not worry about it and that it happens ALL the time. My question is: WHAT THE HELL WHY? In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "How rude." I don't understand the culture down here. The way that my parents raised me, I find racism disgusting and a horrible thing. NO ONE should EVER be discriminated against and to be accused of something that I absolutely do not tolerate PISSES ME OFF.

It sucks that that lady has the power to completely ruin my day. I know I shouldn't let this bother me, but that's one of my faults: I wear my feelings on my sleeve and when someone isn't fair or nice to me, it greatly upsets me. It's not that hard to be a happy person. Even if terrible things happen to you- and believe me, I've been there- there is no excuse for rudeness or assumptions of that nature. I wish I could educate this entire culture, but I can't. So I guess I'll just have to deal with it until I can move the heck out of here.

That can't happen soon enough.