Conversation and Interpretation

Sometimes, you know exactly where someone stands on issues of race. "I'm afraid of black people" and "All Hispanics are lazy" are pretty strong indicators. In other instances, the personality of the speaker usually lets you know if the comment is racist or said in irony to draw attention to others' prejudices -- "If that's the way they feel, then maybe the Jews shouldn't have killed Jesus" or continued use of the term "Freedom Fries" eight years after the fact. 

Then, there are times you're in Sausalito having a few drinks while you wait for the last ferry back to San Francisco for the night and you have no idea whether or not your bartender spends his weekends plotting the downfall of the federal government and conducting eugenics experiments or just watching the ballgame with his other open-minded friends.

This is one such story.

"So, where are you guys from?"

"Alabama," I said, and the bartender handed me my glass of house Pinot Grigio.

"Alabama, huh? I used to date a cheerleader from Auburn."

"Oh, really?" I said. "How interesting."

"But that was back in the '70s. I bet things were really different then. Lots of Civil Rights stuff going on. What's it like down there now?"

"Much better than those days, I hope," I said. "But I'm still surprised by some of the things that come out of people's mouths. When Obama ran for president, I heard some ugly terms I really thought we were past." (This is all true, and I go in to conversations assuming that people are not racist and that we might have an open dialogue about what goes on in our world.)

"Is it like here?" he said.

"I don't really know what it's like here, but I imagine y'all are pretty open-minded."

"Yeah, here," he said. "We're all PC. So PC. You can't say anything anymore." And before he could elaborate, he had to go get more lemon slices.

Hmmm.

Later, I heard him recommending some of the happy hour food specials to another bar patron.

"We've got these great small plates for only $5.00. You could have the sliders or the fish tacos."

"Those both sound good," the girl said.

"The fish tacos are really great. Very authentic. You know, it's all Mexicans back there."

Ah.

Then, on the trip back to our hotel, the Significant Other turned to me and said, "Did you notice anything funny about that bartender?"

"Like what?"

"Like he might have been a racist?"

Maybe our bartender was misunderstood. Maybe he had some real issues -- like xenophobia. I can't really say for sure. But, I probably should have known that $5.00 drinks in Northern California had to come with some strings.