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Opinion: Apology needed over racist incident, says Norwood woman

Posted 7/1/20

To the Editor: To the woman in downtown Norwood on Fathers Day around 7:30 p.m. … you owe my daughter an apology. You chose in that moment to not see a 15-year old girl who is on high honor roll. …

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Opinion: Apology needed over racist incident, says Norwood woman

Posted

To the Editor:

To the woman in downtown Norwood on Fathers Day around 7:30 p.m. … you owe my daughter an apology.

You chose in that moment to not see a 15-year old girl who is on high honor roll. Who is learning how to play four instruments. Who has dreams of becoming a music teacher. No. In that moment you chose to see the color of her skin and to show your ignorance.

Now what would possess an adult to say such a thing to a child I will never know. That she should “go to the end of the line since she’s probably just going to rob the place anyway” shows not only your lack of values, but also your lack of morals.

Thank goodness the older woman you were with had the good graces to apologize to my daughter for your ignorance. However, after her interaction with you, she came home and cried. My daughter, who has been raised to see past what’s on the outside because you can only ever know a person by who they are on the inside, could not understand why you, a middle aged woman, would say something like that to her.

Why would anyone ever say anything like that ever to anyone? But understand; your ignorance didn’t darken her spirit. All you did was show her there are close minded individuals that need help because they don’t understand that what they are doing is wrong; no matter how old they are. That ignorance and racism are chosen traits. So in your feeble attempt to crush her spirit; she grew.

She now knows she has to be careful where she goes (even when you are not even a mile from home). She will forever look over her shoulder or get a little frightened when someone she doesn’t know tries to interact with her. And for that, you owe her an apology.

Autumn Cajigas

Norwood