There are some stories that are so racist that you don’t actually get angry you’re actually kindof shocked that people are that creative. Like the Trayvon Martin shooting gallery, or the All White Basketball League. I mean who has time to come up with so many different ways to not like black people? Apparently DeWitt R. Thomas has found a new religious way to express those beliefs.
In a story that actually makes me chuckle at his audacity Thomas is suing Keith Langston owner of the Two Rivers Grocery & Market in Big Sandy, Texas for letting a black man touch his groceries. Literally. DeWitt in his handwritten court statement admits that when he was paying for his groceries a black bag boy began to put his purchases away and he said:
“Wait a minute, don’t touch my groceries. I can’t have someone negroidal touch my food. It’s against my creed.”
Maybe it’s the way of the world because in the last two weeks I’ve found myself siding with the wrong side of history (first with the Chick-Fil-A owner and now this) but DeWitt Thomas does have a point. He has every right to say that he doesn’t want a black man bagging his groceries. And the store owner has every right to say “Too bad you accept who’s there to bag or you bag your own.” But of course that’s dealing with the higher theoretical issues about fairness and business which is not what this is about. The reason the law does not allow belief’s like Thomas’s to be accommodated is because you’d have people refusing to be operated on by women doctors, or not accepting parking tickets from Asian cops, or refusing to follow laws handed down by Black Presidents….oh wait….
Anyway, this case won’t go anywhere, hand written court filings don’t play too well with judges in a state that would rather put you to death than try you, but there is a lesson to be learned in all of this. If you’re going to be a racist, you should probably find a way to shop for, buy and bag your own groceries. Given that black people are allowed to work for pay in this country it’s pretty hard to ‘Avoid the groid’.
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.