I read an article in a small African-American-oriented newspaper published in Tampa a couple weeks ago, and it provided me with a glaringly clear example of why we, as a Nation, can’t seem to get past the “race thing”.

I didn’t save the article, and the paper, the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, has a pretty sparse presence on the web, and their website apparently has no searchable archives, so I can’t provide more than a link to the paper’s home page. It’s http://www.flsentinel.org

Anyway, the story, to the best of my memory, reported an incident as follows:

An African-American woman, on her daily commute to work, went through the drive-through at a McDonald’s just off the interstate in Tampa to grab an Eggamuffin and coffee, or whatever, stuffed the receipt in her purse, and went on to work. When she got to work she glanced at the receipt, and was horrified to see the word “negro” hand-written on said receipt. Naturally, she was devastated; I mean, the new “n” word, right there on her McDonald’s receipt.

(At the risk of giving it all away, bear in mind this is a drive-through, in Tampa, home to a relatively sizable Hispanic population.)

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