books and covers

A story that puts me at ease and also makes me on edge at the same time. I was in Kentucky Fried Chicken today in Yellowknife, NWT, Canada looking for some deep fried dead bird and was being served by a person of the darker skin. Now, I dont want to say African-Canadian because I dont believe in the whole hyphenation of nationalities, you are either African or you are Canadian, dont spead yourself around and take all the sides. Also dont want to say 'black' because I hear that is not politically correct. Anyways, the person serving me had to be the advanced age of at least 15 or 16 years old and was a friendly and polite individual. Suddenly I noticed a rather thin phillipino woman go bustling around the back area and in the counter area. She had the air of authority and the voice of power. Suddenly the door opened and an individual walked in dressed head to toe in arctic winter apparel. He (I am saying he now only because I heard him speak later, but when the person walked in all I could tell was it was a bipedal humanoid form and that was it) was no more than 2 steps into the store when the woman in authority turned, looked at him and said "He is not allowed in the store" and then hustled into the back.

The man stood stunned at the door, the poor young man behind the counter just looked stunned at the announcement and said nothing. The native man, after taking off his mask to reveal his face, stood stunned and announced in a loud voice "what did I do? I have never been in this store before" and the poor guy behind the counter stood stunned and gave the hand gesture of "I dont know. I just work here. I did nothing". The manager lady stayed in the back and didnt come out and the guy had to go to the window and talk to her through it. All this time the man stood at the door, a little disorientated, looking for either someone to throw him out or someone to let him in. After some talk in the window with the little lady and the young man, the young man went up to the guy and spoke to him from across the counter and asked "you've been drinking?". To which the guy screamed out that he hasnt been drinking, he doesnt drink, he hasnt had a drink in years. The young man then just turned and walked away and the guy, after looking around stunned, walked into the dining area and started to talk with a group of people (a group of other natives) and the lady didnt show her face after that.

I remember this incident because whenever I hear about racial stereotyping in Canada it always involves a caucasian stereotyping against someone else of racial decent. It is interesting to see that anyone could be open to this type of flaw in human nature. Looking at the outer person and not the inner person, taking the sins of the past person and generalizing it to all others in that race. I am wondering if this KFC manager has had so many bad run ins with natives that are drunk that now any native that is unshaven and haggard looking walking into the restaurant get treated with the same disrespect. Guess the thought of 'telling a book by itself cover' is still a long way off and not really ingrained in everyones mind, or perhaps there have been so many bad books out there that the good books in the same genre get over looked.