Mellow,
I am responding to your questions with a story. Sadly, a true story. I am a white guy. In 1990, I moved to the capital city of one our southern states. A long time ago, yes, but long after we supposedly became an integrated society.
I went downtown to the water company to set up my utilities. Walked into a pretty normal stone office building, down a hall to the door marked water department, opened the door and walked in. There were probably 10-12 people at the counter waiting to be served and one clerk behind the counter to wait on them. It was a lunch hour.
As I walked into the room, all the customers standing at the counter moved to the sides of the room, leaving an open spot at the center of the counter. The clerk moved automatically to that spot and said to me, "May I help you sir?"
I motioned to the other folks and noted that they were all ahead of me and I would be happy to wait. They all motioned me to the counter and she said it was my turn.
Somewhat surprised, I looked around the room more carefully. The clerk and I were the only white people in the room.
Do I think I see our society differently than they do? Yep.
Thank you for the story, but what happened then? Assuming they actually were waiting in line, did you accept your 'privileged' position? Why or why not?
