This week, a Facebook video that went viral showed an older woman in a department store yelling, swearing, and belittling two Hispanic women that she accused of “cutting in line.” In later posts, it was revealed that the two Hispanic women had waited in line, but one went back to grab another couple of items and when she returned as the first began to check out, the older woman began her attack. The story has been reported in news media worldwide. In this video which you can see here, she says some the following:

“I don’t care if everybody hears me. I think everybody here probably feels the same d-mn way I do… Go back to wherever the f-ck you come from lady…tell them to go back where they belong. If they come here to live, then act like everyone else. Get to the back of the line like everybody else does and be somebody… You’re a nobody. Just because you come from another country, it doesn’t make you nobody… you’re probably on welfare. The taxpayers probably pay for all that stuff…we probably paid for every bit of that stuff…Speak English. You’re in America. If you don’t know it, learn it.”

This words and actions are hard to see and hear. The words that most caught my attention and hurt my heart were, “You’re a nobody.” I can only imagine the way that made the women feel. Two people out shopping for what is supposed to be a joyous time of year were made to feel like “nobodies.” The hate and rage directed towards them simply because they looked different than the attacker. The women yelling told them to “act like everyone else.” I wonder if that meant they should have turned on her and screamed obscenities. Should they have thrown out words like old fat b**ch?

Sadly, the yelling woman reminded me of my mother. My mother had a mouth and would not hesitate to make her feeling known in a public setting. I have seen her berate store clerks or servers at restaurants. She had led a very difficult and hard life. She refused to let people get too close to her. I am afraid she might have gone off in a very similar fashion. I refuse to accept that living a hard life or having been dealt a difficult hand is a valid excuse for anyone to hurt others. I know far too many people who have overcome their past and make a conscious choice daily to “do better” as Maya Angelou says.

I wondered why no one spoke out or tried to defend these two women. The woman who took the video and posted it said that she wanted to show the racist attitudes still exist, however, she did not say anything to the woman during the tirade. Only the store clerk says anything and that was in response to the “F” word. Have we become immune to seeing people treated this way? During our presidential campaigns the past few months, we heard many racial, sexual and gender-based slurs cast from podiums. Are we willing to accept this as normal behavior and turn away? I have heard it said that silence is a form of consent. By doing and saying nothing, the bystanders showed the two Hispanic women that they agreed with the cruel words of the speaker.

A Protestant pastor named Martin Niemöller was an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He shared this sentiment in a lecture after the war:

In Germany, they first came for the Communists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me

and by that time no one was left to speak up for me.