The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I love to shop at my local drugstore. I must have shopped there multiple times a week for over a year. The store manager “Dale” always struck me as a bit strange, but I always was friendly to him. One time during Halloween I needed helium balloons for the class party, and nowhere in town had helium. I brought my deflated balloons to Dale and asked if he had helium, “Sure, you’re one of our best customers!” He filled up my balloons for free and a woman saw and asked if he could fill some balloons for her and he said no. He was always friendly and would even give me the clearance price on some items that probably weren’t on sale. Then one day, I went to shopping a few days before Christmas. He asked, “Oh, do you need Christmas ornaments, they just got marked down, check isle 5.” And I replied, “No actually, I’m Jewish.” Suddenly, it was a very awkward moment. He replied, “What!” I said in a friendly voice, “Well I do need some holiday wrapping and cards for the teachers, but we actually celebrate Hanukkah.” At that moment, Dale looked at me with this almost look of disgust. And I will admit it, it hurt me. I couldn’t understand how he could be so shocked when he discovered I was Jewish.I felt almost betrayed that a year and half of friendly interactions could all go out the window in a split second. I learned from that incident, that it is better for me to stay quiet. In some ways, it silenced me. I learned that it’s better to fly under the radar and not share the details of my life with random strangers. After that incident, I stopped shopping there for a month or so, but finally I went back. I still see Dale, and we are still cordial, but he has never treated me the same even though he is still nice, he looks at me differently.