by Robert Gillis
Written 1/31/2021 and published on social media and here
What would you have done?
I’m REALLY ASKING.
And please – this is not about Trump v Biden, I swear.
This really happened to me and I wonder, what you do, all opinions welcome.
It’s about my encounter with one of the most racist hateful people I ever had the displeasure of meeting.
She was descpicable.
Last Wednesday I am in Quincy and low on gas so I stopped at BJs Wholesale gas next to Quincy Adams — pulled over and started gassing up the car.
“One week in office and gas prices are up!” someone yells.
I ignored it, not talking to me obviously.
Turns out she was.
80-year-old woman (she told me) not wearing a mask, walks toward me and starts staying LOUDLY how someone will get him (she means Biden, she explains) and how good it was for four years and how much Trump did for the country.
AGAIN, I am not being political. This is NOT a political post. I swear. It’s about what happened next.
Like an idiot, I engaged the woman. “What did he do?” I asked.
“WHAT DID HE DO???” she screamed.
“I’m being conversational,” I explained. “Can you give me an example. Just passing the time.”
“The pipeline. She said. The one HE just shut down, but they’ll get him.”
I just want to get my car filled and go home.
THEN it gets UGLY.
She tells me as I keep saying “Uh Huh” and HE (45) kept THEM out. THEM In her words: The N word (she says it a lot), the S word (for Hispanics) and how all the rapists (her words) would come in now. How all those N words and S words have too many kids and none of them work but they’ll pay thousands to live in her houses (she has five, she tells me).
For almost 10 minutes (slowest gas pump ever) I listened to this spewing of HATE and fire-hosing racism.
Then she adds, “And that b*tch Harris” (her words) “sold her body to get to where she is.” “And that b*tch Pelosi.” And N word and S word and on and on and I wonder if God is testing me or I am going to lose MY shit and end up going viral as the guy who screamed and yelled at the old lady at the gas station.
As the woman goes on and on, (why do total strangers tell me their life story?) She tells me where she worked for 42 years at the IRS.
Finally, I have had enough, screw the gas. I am DONE. I am out of here. This woman is poison. “Gotta go,” I say and she’s still sowing her hatred as I leave. STILL talking. Without a damned mask.
For the love of God, keeping politics out of it – I don’t care whether it’s Trump or Biden for you – WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
I’m standing there, in a car with a license plate easily traced. I’m easily identifiable. And I was taught to respect senior citizens but I really wanted to tell her, God forgive me, to Go F herself and call her out as a racist. She is a HORRIBLE person and a racist.
But I didn’t — I just left her and drove away.
Love they neighbor? She is one of the worst humans I have ever met, that she’s a racist and dead wrong and she should be ashamed. I wanted to say we’re all God’s children. How dare she over-generalize and spread lies and HATE and dammit it still bothers me.
But I have seen elderly white racists before and NOTHING is going to change her opinion. NOTHING.
She has SO much hate in her heart. So much anger and using the words I used to hear in Dorchester as a kid that I scrubbed from my vocabulary before I was 12. Because it was wrong.
What would you have done? Did I do the right thing just ignoring her? I didn’t want to get into a shouting match or worse with an obviously hateful angry person, certainly not an 80-year-old who clearly has some issues.
But I feel like by NOT calling her out I’m part of the problem, but NOTHING would have changed her mind, and worse, she may have become hysterical.
What would you have done?