During the current legal challenges and heated debates over several states new, rigid anti-immigration laws (pending), I have been reminded over and over that we all (especially us Southern “church ladies” would not know what to think about other people all around them, all the time, everyday, in every setting, without including thoughts that fit every definition of PROFILING! This has disturbed my inner balance more than I would like with pangs of sadness and disappointment in my “ladies”. WHY DO WE NE–EE–EEEE–EEED TO CLASSIFY OTHERS IN OUR OWN MINDS? Why is that such a seeming requisite? Well, I think it is a whole lot of insecurity, a whole lot of secret unnecessary fear, a tad(?) of smugness, and a tad of needing to “pray aloud on the street corners”. So, I felt much better after lunching at my favorite church lady’s establishment(she projects not one whit of a profiling attitude!) and observing the following:
MOHAWK CUT AMONGST THE HAIR-SPRAYED
The Mohawk-cut struts with his cute, well-toned
young self amonst the
Hair-sprayed lunchers
clean in his
N.W.A.–STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON
rip-sleeved tee,
Careful to swivel
away from each and every
Lifted sweet-tea and Diet Pepsi’
leaning on the counter so lithely
To pick up his mama’s order
while many $60.00 tinted heads
Oh so pucker-lipped gaze most carefully
down on their barely touched salads.
His mama had ordered the cornbread
and collard greens and a whole
Chocolate Sin layer cake, the same as I
had taken for my mother-in-law’s birthday!
Guess which parts of the above scene perked me up the most!
granbee 