Tonight Alicia came home frustrated. Everyone had gotten their basketball pictures, but hers had proof written in Sharpie marker across the face with a note that no money was enclosed with her order. She was very frustrated because on picture day she'd brought a twenty-dollar bill and had asked everyone if they had change for her $15 purchase. No one did, so the photographer took her money and told her he'd send her the change. Then he put it in his pocket while saying, "Don't you trust me? Don't you trust me?"
She hadn't mentioned this at the time because if she had I would have checked into it. Everyone remembered her asking them for change, and the coach saw him put the money in his pocket. The coach confirmed that the photographer was very impatient with Alicia, who couldn't quite understand how he wanted her to pose because he was mumbling into his t-shirt. This whole school-sports thing is literally foreign to Alicia and so is having portraits taken at school. The coach explained to the photographer that she was a foreign-exchange student, but that she spoke good English and could understand him if he would speak a little more clearly.
This reminded me that I've noticed that some people, upon hearing Alicia's accent, immediately think Mexican and so they automatically categorize her in a not-too-subtle negative way. I feel compelled to explain that she's Spanish, so give her a break, but then I'm feeding into their biases by assuring them that she's not Mexican and why should I do that? But more than a few Spanish people have a bias against Mexicans, too. The irony is that, unless they live here, they don't realize that they are being lumped into the very group of people that they have stereotyped. I wonder if it's what Canadian travelers are doing in other parts of the world now: assuring the natives that they are not American.
So, I don't know if this photographer was rude to only her, if he thought he'd get away with stealing her money because she wasn't from here, or if he was just a jerk in general. I talked to the owner of the company today and she couldn't have been nicer. She was very interested to find out who the photographer was and assured me they'd be having a conversation. She apologized for his behavior and mentioned that they had been in business for thirty years, which would not be possible if this behavior was the norm. She is sending a $25 package instead of the $15 package Alicia ordered, and she's including her original $5 in change. Not once did she imply that Alicia might have been mistaken in her contention that she paid cash for her pictures.
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