Interesting Experiance while at Wally World

[ABG0819]

A couple of days ago a friend of mine and I were out for a kilted day on the town. Because of careers, family, and life in general we don't get a lot of time to just plunder around town, and so when we do we take advantage of it. Anyway, his mother invited me to dinner that evening because she knew my wife was out of town and didn't want me to starve to death. So we stopped at Wal-Mart to grab some last minute eatables. While walking in the frozen food isle we were spotted by a group of three african-amerian teenagers. They looked exactly like you would expect them too, sagging pants, baggy t-shirts and sideways ball caps. I have to admit that my first thought was that we would be taking some abuse from said "hooligans." The leader of the gang stopped us and asked if we would be going to Heroes, a local watering hole where the local Irish punk band "My three Kilts" plays regularly.
Of course, we are friends with the guys in the band and we had a pleasant, if short, conversation with these young guys. We then proceeded to pay for our items, and as we left the store we were accosted by a middle aged couple. The woman proceeded to make unnecessary and quite offensive comments about our kilts. I am proud to say that while I had a deep desire to throw these uncouth people through the closest plate glass window I withstood desire.
On the drive to my friend's mother's house I pointed out to him that I would have expected the two encounters to be exactly opposite than how they turned out.
My bonnet off to those young lads for their acceptance of what they no doubt considered unusual.

Graham

[Mael Coluim]

Life is amazing. As it oft said, "don't judge a book by its cover".

[ABG0819]

I admit freely and with a wee bit of shame that I did indeed judge to quickly and with a bit of bias.

[mookien]

Intolerance comes in all sizes, shapes, colors, ages, etc. Having said that, my expectations would have mirrored yours.

[fluter]

I have had overwhelmingly positive interaction with urban youth of all hues.

[Deirachel]

Honestly, this has been my experience more often than not. The younger crowd of all stripes think it's cool. The rednecks, the hipsters, the hip-hop/urban crowd, the goths/emos. They all love it. The middle aged people and older folks? They turn their noses up.

What really surprised me was at my last job the more international folks were the most derisive. We had a number of Caribbean Islanders whom had immigrated to the States, as well as an African, a couple of subcontinentals, and two Europeans. The Islanders, Europeans, and the subcontinents all insulted me regularly when I was kilted in the office. You just have to take it in stride and keep going. The ignorant fool will never be more than an ignorant fool.

[Mickey]

Well done, Graham. It is interesting who the rude comments come from. The people who like the kilt are generally people who don't follow fashion and have at least once in their lives have tried to just be themselves. The ones who try to fit into a mold, don't like it.

The ignorant fool will never be more than an ignorant fool.

Well said indeed. It is our reaction that defines class.

[GMan]

"Hooligans" always send me positives they appreciate the fact that I do not conform to and notion of conformity. Drunks on the other hand do not get it.

[OC Richard]

It's been my general experience too, that members of ethnic minorities are more accepting of diversity.

Though here in California the term "minority" is more or less meaningless, as everyone here is a minority, there being no linguistic or ethnic majority.

It's the only state, last I saw the numbers, where less than 50% of the population speaks English at home.

[Sharkman]

Good on you for not retaliating verbally!!

No matter the ethnicity or station in life of some folks ignorance and intolerance abound. Some folks are thick as two planks.