It may be old, but its still clean.

Let me take you back to an incident that I think you'll enjoy, it's one of my favorite anecdotes.

It was a cool fall evening when I was asked to manage a large video store in Dearborn, MI. If you are unfamiliar with the ethnic makeup of this city let me explain, it is primarily Arabic, which is of no real concern to me, but it is a foundation for this story. I like to consider myself as a pleasurable guy and rather enjoy meeting people. So when I promptly arrived a little past when my shift started, I scoped out the people with whom I was going to share this evening.

I arranged various unimportant items in an attempt to look more important than I actually was, and decided after enough time had passed that it was time for my fellow co-workers to make my acquaintance. So I approached a young female and in a friendly, professional tone, introduced myself. Here is where it gets interesting. As a slave to cultural traditions, I extended my hand to shake this fellow human's hand, because this is what one does when they meet someone.

What happened next will forever stun me. At the very sight of my outstretched hand, she visibly recoiled from it, almost like my hand was a venomous snake. Sidebar: I hate similes, they are like gay. Anyhow, as she recoiled, she said; "oh no, no touching. You are an infidel. You are unclean."

Needless to say I was slightly taken aback at this. I had never in my life experienced racial prejudice, and it stung a little. I guess I do not have to explain that our relationship never really progressed past that event. Sometimes I think it is just hard to move past something like calling someone unclean. Ah well.

To this day I still think about how I am an infidel and I will forever remember my brush with racial profiling.