Jackie Danicki

Produce

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I headed up to Findlay Market this afternoon to grab a few bits and pieces (which quickly turned into a backpack and three huge bags stuffed with fruit and vegetables, a fraction of which is above). I was wearing this t-shirt, as part of my participation in the Red Shirt for Burma event. Oops.

What amused me was that all of the comments came from white, middle class (or higher, as far as I know) people.

“WHAT DOES YOUR SHIRT MEAN?”
“What do you think it means?”
“TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS!!!!”

Another:

“What does your shirt say?”
[looks]
“What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means?”

Next (from the cashier at Madison’s Market):

“Your shirt…Is that supposed to be sarcastic?”
“Nope!”
“Oh…”

I was entertained by how cryptic they found the shirt. I can imagine some of my friends asking me to explain the shirt to them, and I would happily have done so. But a productive conversation about true liberalism vs stasis statism while walking the produce aisle wasn’t really on the cards.

It’s sort of depressing to think that they may live in such an intellectual vacuum that they are not used to encountering differing opinions, thus their difficulty in parsing them. So much for “conservative Cincinnati”.

I do love the fact that we live in a place where people are free to hold their own opinions, which means being prepared for disagreement. I also found it sort of cute that their disgust was displayed in such a relatively polite, midwestern way. In London, I’d have probably just got called a cunt.

Filed under: Life