There's nothing like getting into the holiday spirit like telling people to go back to their own country. That type of xenophobia is sure to warm up the hearts and minds of everyone in the good old U.S.A, and I’m sure that gross feeling of intolerance won’t go away.
What am I talking about, you ask? I’m talking about this Kentucky woman who just grilled Hispanic shoppers on a decent Tuesday morning at JC Penny. I’m not sure what made her so upset in the first place, but it was enough for her to go on a tirade on a Hispanic women, who just simply wanted to finish her transaction. Trust me, this wasn’t some funny viral video you watch with your pals, but an ugly reminder on how we failed as good human beings.
“Just go back wherever the f*ck you came from,” she said before turning to the cashier. “Hey!” she said. “Tell ’em to go back where they belong. You know, they come here to live and they act like they’re everybody else. Get in the back of the line like everybody else does.”
It gets better, considering she wasn’t done yet with her rant.
“You’re a nobody,” she went on. “Just because you come from another country, it don’t make you nobody! Nobody, as far as I’m concerned. You’re probably on welfare, the taxpayers probably paid for all that stuff.”
It is amazing how one can gain such a high sense of superiority (if not arrogance). I never understood how people could act like that in such a way, where we treat others like dirt and then shrug it off like nobody’s business. Perhaps there is a more efficient way of explaining this old lady’s actions and pretty much everyone who has acted like her in the past.
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias (or OGHB), is when we classify people who are not in our “in-group” as being similar to one another. Because of that, people tend to create a set of stereotypes for people who come from different places. How the old woman was reacting in the video was a textbook example of OGHB. She classified the Hispanics customers (and all Hispanics in general) as people who are always on welfare and are problematic to American living.
We’ve seen this before, mainly with folks like David Duke, Donald Trump, and pretty much anyone who has extreme prejudice. Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t an excuse to act like a complete jerk to other people. What got me crossed about the whole situation is that no one stood up for the people getting yelled at. They just pretend as if some old lady didn’t represent the ugly side 2016. If you want me to believe that racism is dead, work on it and be a decent person to one another. It is the holidays for God’s sake. Remember, Santa doesn’t like having to deal with prejudice for Christmas.
