… by association
the owner of the cafe
had called someone
an inappropriate name
it was a twitter thing
of a video
posted of the
owner saying that offensive word
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now no one can go
to the cafe
without being considered guilty
of saying those things themselves
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now
to be honest
I haven’t heard
what the owner said
I haven’t watched the video
this is all the context I know
and now
I can’t go to that cafe
I can’t even mention the name
of the cafe
I can’t even admit
that I’ve been there
in the past
<>
I’d like to blame someone
for this
but I don’t know who
him
the reactionary people
the social context
where every action we do
every word we say
attracts scrutiny
I live in a time
where
we are all guilty
by association
Locations, retail establishments & maybe genders has been changed int rioting hit apiece so as not to cast shade – I read a version of this on a pre-pandemic open-stage (remember those?) & two different people approached me after to say they knew the situation I had written about – they each identified a different situation, neither of which was the one that sparked the piece.
That ordinary people say stupid things comes as no surprise to me but sometimes I think reactions are anger deflected from when people in power say stupid things & laugh off consequences as coming from haters (i.e Trump). We are powerless to get ‘even’ with his kind but that guy that runs the corner store is a more accessible target. Let’s take it out on them.
We can’t fire the president but we can get that waitress fired for saying something we disagree with that made us uncomfortable. That ordinary people say offensive things comes as no surprise to me but I do try to put it in context & try to put their ‘power’ in context as well.
The irony is that we react to situation & people who take us uncomfortable & expect them to adjust to accommodate us but when we make someone uncomfortable we have no intention of adjusting to accommodate them. Then again I am an entitled, white, male so don’t really have a standing in any of this anyway, expect standing in line to get a coffee.
TOpoet 