Eugenio's Blog!

Incident 1. I had a run-in with a farm-owner this week while outreaching to the agricultural camps. The farm-owner was shouting out these ludicrous propositions: “Legal Aid does not have the right to trespass on this property! It is my property! M – Y. My!”

. . . Wow . . . a 2-letter word. Try a harder word, Mr. Farm-owner . . . how about “property?” . . .

Respectfully, of course, we asserted that the workers do have the right to have visitors of their choosing, just as tenants of apartment complexes can have guests in their homes. “The law is very clear on this, sir.” We threw in the “sir” hoping that Southern hospitality would catch on.

It didn’t. “Oh yeah, y’all try me! Now get out of here!” with his thumb pointing out in the direction of the main road.

We weren’t quite sure what he meant by “try me.” Did he want us to invite him to participate in an evening of legal discussion about migrant visitation rights at the local organic coffeehouse? . . . Another lost opportunity.

Incident 2. I’m at the County Department of Social Services office:

“Good Morning, ma’am. May I please get some literature about applying for Medicaid?”

“Medicaid?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why yes, sir, here you are,” handing me a couple of pamphlets and applications.

“Thank you, ma’am.” I start looking at the materials . . . I was able to understand everything, but it took me a second before the light went on . . .

“Excuse me, ma’am . . . can I get this information in English, please?”

“Oh, I thought you would want it in Spanish, sir.”

What?! Didn’t I ask you in perfect formal Southern American English to obtain information? Why on earth would you assume Spanish?

Thank goodness she ended the sentence with "sir." Otherwise, she would have been just plain rude. Prejudicial and rude is a really bad combination.