Sunday, March 07, 2010

Clash of the cultures and races.

I had one of those moments the other day that I just did not know how to resolve and the issue of true real life circumstance came forward. I had taken my sister Mary grocery shopping and was heading to Eureka Natural Foods when my cell phone rang while turning on Central between Safeway and CVS toward Henderson. I pulled over heading north to answer the call. While I was talking to the person calling me, a white small station wagon edged through the stop sign and clipped a black small car turning onto Central with a small child in the back. The white car drove past the car and I thought they would just keep going, but they stopped at the Donut King and the little black car pulled over near the same. While I was on the cell phone, I saw they were arguing with each other. So I ended the call and went across the street to talk to both. The black car that was hit had a young Latino woman who had her daughter in the back seat and had taken the brunt of the damage. Her rear back panel was pushed in and the white car had little damage as she hit the black car with her bumper. When I walked up to the Latino women, she was distraught and asked me, ¿Usted habla español? (Do you speak Spanish?) I told her "Poco" (A little) and she explained in Spanish ¡Daba vuelta a la izquierda en la calle y ella me golpeó mientras que intentaba dar vuelta! (She was hit while trying to turn onto Central.) I explained her argument with the lady in the white station wagon that hit her and the lady told me that the Latino lady had hit her! I told her that there is no way that she could have hit her with her rear quarter panel, but she said I did not know what I saw and challenged how I or my sister could have witnessed this. We explained I was pulled over and sitting there in perfect position to see. She became uncoopertive and standoffish toward us and was yelling at the young Latino whether she wanted to have each insuranse take care of the this. I told the Latino lady, ¡Usted necesita compartir la información con ella!(You need to share information with her!) The Latino lady was in tears over the damage on her vehicle and the other lady had little damage to her vehicle, and she could see this lady was overbearing on what happened, so she got into her car and drove off. And then so did the other person that hit her. What a sad sight. Just a small snapshot of our cultural differences.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This fight happened to have people of different ethnicity. That part is not relevant to the story.

I think that the real difference was an encounter between a person with a low tolerance for conflict and a bitch.

Every race has people of both persuasions; we all have met bad people from every race.

While you told a sad story, I think that presenting this as a racial morality play is wrong.

It is just the story of a bitch bullying a weaker person.

Anonymous said...

My eyewitness accounts put you on the side of the road eating donuts, not talking on your cell phone. Tell the truth.

samoasoftball said...

Liar! My sister was with me and even pointed out that those donuts were the best in the world. But I held my composure and just tried to help. In the donut parking lot. On Central. Next to Safeway. Across from the Dollar Store. Off of Henderson........oh man I want one of those donuts now!

Anonymous said...

To bad about the accident. Please inform us how this has anything to do with cultural differences. Did you take down the license plate numbers and turn them into the police so that they could get the woman, who was at fault, to do the right thing?

Ekovox said...

Sigh....Will Winchell's ever return to the Eureka Mall?

samoasoftball said...

2:29pm- No, I did not take down their license plate numbers. That is what the two involved should have done first. I was just an observer who in hind sight should have. I gave the Latino girl my SAC business card and her insurance agent called me for the specifics a few days after. She was insured, so her car will be fixed.

Bob M. said...

Huh? Cultural differences? Here's a news flash for you....not every encounter with a minority is a cultural issue. What does anyones culture have to do with this? Is it because one didn't speak english? You liberals find racism or racial enlightenment behind every rock. Maybe the english speaker just wasn't very nice. Since you didn't answer the last two times you were asked the same question I doubt you will now either but I just thought I would check.