At Kennywood yesterday, my brother rented one of those scooters for me so I could keep up for the entire day and carry all the stuff around with us. I was sitting by the entrance to a ride when a young man of color dressed in what I call rapper style clothing staggered up to me. His speech was also terribly slurred. He asked me here I got the scooter and told me it was the coolest scooter he had ever seen. Without meeting his gaze I told him politely that my brother had rented it. He made me uncomfortable and I just wanted him to go away; I thought he was drunk or high or worse. A few minutes later, an older, blonde-haired woman approached me with the same question. It seems that the young man, aged 35, was her son and had suffered permanent physical damage to his spinal cord as the result of an accident when he was 21 . His brain was largely unaffected and he had finished college at Penn State, but he had difficulty walking and talking. I filled her in on scooter rental information and she happily headed off to the scooter station. Later on I saw her and her son on a scooter at a drink stand in the park. Once again she thanked me for my help with the scooter and he smiled and waved his thanks too. This incident has somewhat upset me. I saw a young man of color in a certain style of clothing and my immediate reaction was suspicion and discomfort. But when I spoke with his mother and learned more about him, the real story behind his actions, I was filled with compassion and sympathy for a fellow human being. And I also felt tremendous guilt for judging someone based on stereotypes of color and clothing. I learned an important lesson. I hope in future I will value people not for what is outside, but for what is inside.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:07:16 +0000
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