Earlier today I went to my appointment with the nutritionist. My nutritionist was happy to tell me I lost 10 lbs! She gave a few tips about eating right and then she told me to buy a rotisserie chicken (a whole chicken already grilled) at the grocery store so I walked over and found the chicken in the back but when I went to pay for it, I had no cash and my debit card wouldn’t work in the little machine.
But the card debacle got me nervous because people were waiting behind me and I took a few looks at the four people behind me.
No big deal but one of the people in line who I glanced at was a VERY intimidating looking black guy about 40 or so. He had dred locks and a mean face that you could tell he had been through a lot in life.
I looked at him and he looked at me. He made me nervous too but I had nothing against him but he gave a me a little unfriendly look and when my card wouldn’t work I immediately told the cashier I would put the chicken back. I was very flustered and a little embarrassed and then out of the blue the guy with the dreds spoke up and said, “I’ll pay for it”.
I looked at him and now he had a friendly look and I was taken by surprise. He smiled and I said something like “Wow, thank you very much” and I looked him in the eye very appreciative. It was really kind and he handed the cashier $6.50 and the cashier smiled too and rang it up and I left. This has only happened to me once or twice in my entire life.
But I figured out the dynamics of the situation ( I thought) right when I was leaving. I might be wrong. Black people in certain areas have to be a little guarded as who to trust. So they are a little guarded and reserved until they kind of “feel out” a little how a white person is with black people. They can’t just trust anybody but when I looked the first time at the guy I think he assumed (I am aware this exchange might not have been a racial thing) that I might have a problem with black people, which I don’t. But this is my experience and guess and I ran into this a lot in my active addiction where many people thought I was a cop or prejudice. But I looked the guy in the eye and he just turned out to be a Good Samaritan. It was one of those spur of the moment “feel good” moments.