Polimom can relate to Rep. McKinney’s current (and apparently ongoing) frustration with face recognition. This CNN story recounts this blatantly hostile… umm… oblivion:
Members of Congress are allowed to bypass the metal detectors and security checkpoint. They are supposed to wear a lapel pin that identifies them as lawmakers. McKinney acknowledges she wasn’t wearing one when she was stopped, but concurred with Myart that police should know who she is.
“The pin is not the issue,” the six-time congresswoman said. “The issue is face recognition.”
Yes, this is quite outrageous, and evidently more widespread than people realize. For instance, just yesterday the clerk at the grocery store had the audacity to demand (DEMAND!) that I show my identification before she would take my check!
It’s even more disturbing that the security guard might have chosen to not recognize Rep. McKinney because of her politics.
Myart further called the incident racial profiling and said there was “no excuse” for Capitol Police not recognizing his client, and Raffauf said she was stopped solely because of her race, gender and politics.
You know, I bet that clerk did the same thing to me. She probably thinks New Orleans shouldn’t rebuilt, and that’s why she didn’t know I was Polimom… or wait… does that make sense?
I went straight to the manager of the store, though, the next day, when I remembered that the insulting clerk had touched my hand when she gave me the pen. It seemed to me that she deliberately did that, and it was very suggestive and inappropriate — particularly because she wasn’t my race. (I don’t know what race she was, and even though I’ve read that DNA proves there’s no such thing as “race”, I think it’s really important that society is careful to analyze everything in terms of skin color. We can find racism anywhere, if we just look hard enough.)
Now, I realize none of this would have happened if I’d been wearing my super top-secret Polimom badge that I modified from my Cheerios box last month, but really, I shop at that store pretty much every day. They should know who I am!
I certainly do.
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I’m updating with the sad news that we appear to have a terrible self-esteem problem in the blogosphere. The vast majority simply do not seem to understand the terribly-wronged McKinney. Apparently they have grown to accept the slights inflicted upon them every day by people who do not instantly recognize them as very important people. (Here, here, and here.)
Hat tip to Kent, though, for trying really hard to understand, and Slobokan for coming up with the best alternative explanation.
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