Bargaining With A Bigot

To The Editor,

It is with a certain amount of sadness that I write this letter to report an unsettling experience I had last week involving a fellow citizen of Newtown. I stopped at a yard sale and found a couple of items I was interested in. The homeowner was involved in a conversation regarding the merits of a certain automobile with another customer so I waited patiently for ten minutes or so until the other customer left and he came over to me.

We negotiated for one item and I asked the price of another unmarked item, an extension cord. He said five dollars. I offered him three. He proceeded to tell me about how wonderful the thing was and asked if I had seen extension cords in the store recently.

I told him I had several already, and it was only worth three dollars to me. He said he really wanted five and it was only two dollars more. I told him no, three was it. He grunted okay, but I could tell he was very unhappy about it.

As I was paying him he suddenly asked a question that was wholly unexpected: “Are you Jewish?” The question hung there for a moment, in the rapidly widening chasm between us. “Yes, I am. Why would you ask that?” His reply was, “Oh, nothing, I just figured you were.”

On the way home I thought of a number of ways I could have responded, or should have responded. In the past when encountering these types of incidents I have been quite vocal. But I can’t help but wonder what makes a person think that it’s perfectly okay to say something that offensive. Without even a thought he spouts a ridiculous stereotype directly to the object of it. I don’t like anti-Semites, I don’t like bigots of any kind. I don’t like what they teach their children. I don’t like the effect they have on society. There is no place for them. There is no use for them. I wrote this letter to remind people bigotry is still here and it is still despicable as ever.

Robert Karnoff

66 Great Ring Road, Sandy Hook                                March 31, 2009