Offensiveness

Cowgrit put her mother’s old microwave oven on craigslist for her. Her mom has recently remodeled her kitchen, so all her old appliances, though still good, had to go for replacements. (I mentioned in this blog replacing her dish washer, myself, a few weeks ago.) Her mother wasn’t going to be at home when someone asked to go by and see the item, so Cowgrit asked me to run over to the house and wait for the potential buyer.

The guy showed up, and I opened the garage door to show him the microwave. He had called Cowgrit just prior to showing up and talked with her a bit about it. He asked for a lower price and she gave in a little — just to get the item out of her mother’s way. When the guy was talking to me about it, he seemed a little uncomfortable about having haggled the price down. He was explaining to me why, but I really didn’t care.

“I’m probably not going to use it for very long,” he said. “We’re going to remodel soon, too, and we’ll probably just turn around and sell it, too.”

I just said, “Yeah.” Reasons and explanations weren’t necessary for me. I was just there to show it to him, and take his money if he decided to buy it.

But he continued talking in a continuous string of information. “So I wasn’t just trying to Jew you down on the price. . . .”

It took a couple moments for that statement to really register with me. I wasn’t offended, but then I’m not Jewish, and I don’t care if the guy about to give me money and haul away something so I don’t have to is a bigot.

But after he left, it made me wonder just what he was thinking. I mentioned the conversation and statement to Cowgrit when I got home.

“How could he know I’m not Jewish,” I asked.

Cowgrit shrugged her shoulders. “You have blue eyes?”

“Oh,” I said, “OK, maybe that gave me away.”

But even so, was there something about me that made him think I wouldn’t care about a racist comment? Or maybe he just always talks like that, and it didn’t matter who I was or might be. Hmm.

Should I have sent him away on principle? Should I have cared at all? Like I said, the statement itself didn’t offend me, but it just makes me wonder what he was thinking about me.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com