There have been several incidents that I perceived as discriminatory behavior toward me in Federal Way.
I can tell you about the cashier at one of the hardware stores who refused to provide service, until a manager was summoned to the express self-service area. How about the other day, when I visited a local restaurant and had to request assistance from management due to the lack of equal caliber service?
Instead of tackling the monstrous topic of discrimination, let me share a few incidents from the humorous but ignorant side. A common act of racism is when a person will ask, “Is your family still in Mexico?” Or “What country are you from?” Try this one for a tickle: “Is that a Chihuahua?”
I am a proud American Latino born in what used to belong to Mexico but now is the state of Arizona. Secondly, my parents were both hardworking U.S. citizens. And my dog is a Pomeranian — that’s a big difference from a Chihuahua! Yup, Federal Way has ignorant folks with that mindset.
The dictionary defines discrimination as making a distinction based on judgment, or to give unfair treatment. Thus creating the root of racism, this is demonstrated in diverse forms, both overtly and covertly. Usually a discriminatory act is a reaction of someone’s ideology of thinking they are superior to another racial group.
The following incident sums up the shotgun experiences of discrimination that I have experienced as a Latino in Federal Way.
It was a warm early summer day as I was kneeling down. While focused on the task at hand, I was pretty much hidden under my sombrero, when I suddenly heard the words, “Alo, alo, joo da gardner?” I looked up and there was a lady. With noticeable broken English, she asked me for my phone number. She had seen me working as I manicured my lawn and garden. In an obvious sarcastic way, I responded, “Ma’am, I am a married man.”
“No no,” she replied, “you gardner for me.” Yup, you guessed it correctly. This lady assumed that because I was of Latino descent, and perhaps because of my Mexican style hat and working on a property where homes are pretty nice, that I was a hired hand.
After a chuckle from my reply to the phone number solicitation, I responded to her interest to hire me, thinking I was a gardener. I said, “I live here.” Grab a hold of your seat to her response of me being the owner of the property. “Joo a liva here? Joo buy house and joo pay?” She assumed that because I was Latino, that I was working as a landscaper and that I could not be able to own a home that’s in her ritzy neighborhood.
You see, discrimination is usually an ignorant reaction of someone’s limited understanding of social and cultural surroundings, thus creating an incompetent mindset in the racist person, who reacts to anything different than his/her ideology.
Until we live and fulfill what our “Pledge of Allegiance” declares, as a person of color I will every day be subjected to this demon called “discrimination.” If our patriarch wrote and intended that there “be justice for all,” then there is a long way to go.
Tito Hinojos is a Federal Way resident. Send comments to
editor@fedwaymirror.com.
