11.01.07
Faux Pas
“Excuse me miss,” I tapped the uniformed girl on the shoulder, “do you have a size 6 or 5 ½ of this shoe?”
“Miss” turned around quickly
and exclaimed harshly in bisaya, “ambot!
Unsa bah?!”
After glaring at me, she grabbed
a guy’s arm – presumably her boyfriend – and hastily left the shoe store with an
arrogant strut. She took off too soon
and I was too flustered to apologize.
Silly blunders! I did it
again. Next time I really should be more
careful. It’s not enough to identify a
salesgirl by the color of a uniform.
I felt really sheepish about
my blooper because I’m certain that it ruined the girl’s day. On the other hand, right then and there, I
realized that I had just witnessed another form of discrimination. What was so bad about being mistaken for a
salesgirl? That happened to me once and
I just laughed – so did the person who misconceived when he realized his error.
Some of us react hysterically
when a foreigner observes how dirty the Philippines is and announces it on
air, or when our medical schools are slighted. We call it prejudice. Yet, we
look down on salesgirls or household maids. We dress up nicely on social gatherings because we “wouldn’t want to
look like a yaya.” We
hate to be “underestimated.”
I call that
prejudice.
A graver kind of prejudice.
