Wednesday, November 9, 2016

What Has This Country Come To?

"The man at the cash register wants to know if you think your card will work. If this is his routine, he didn't use it on the friend who went before you" (54).

Throughout the book, Rankine describes situations similar to the encounter at the cash register. I selected this specific one about the person at the cash register, because it is a small act which shows racism. The person who is walking up to buy something from the store, is assumed to be poor just because of the color of their skin. The person could be very rich who has enough money to pay for the item he wants. In this situation, the person before is presumably white and therefore does not get the same question.

In Oak Park and River Forest, I have never seen a person asked if their card will work. This quote revealed a situation I have never seen, and this was very fascinating to me. The society in Oak Park does not have these problems, and the quote opened my eyes to what happens in other communities in this country. It is very scary to see the racism described in this book. Throughout the book there were many examples similar to this situation which all show the racism in this country, but the person behind the register is clearly being racist due to the fact that they act differently to different customers based on the color of their skin.

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