How To Handle Entitled Racist People During COVID, Especially When You’re Already Scared

We just wanted our ice cream, but she needed to police strangers

Anna (she/her)
An Injustice!
Published in
4 min readMay 14, 2021

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Photo by Heather Barnes on Unsplash

The woman seemed perfectly nice at first. An older white woman in her late 60s or early 70s, she asked if we were waiting in the right line before she stepped into the “express” line for those ordering gallons of ice cream to go.

I replied that yes, we were in the right line as we were going to order cones. We weren’t sure which flavors we wanted yet anyway. This particular ice cream shop is a long-time institution with unique flavors. We needed time to think.

My family and I were celebrating our older daughter’s birthday with our first trip to the “City” since before the pandemic. We were already nervous, as this was our first outing in public beyond a trip to pick up takeaway or a stop at the post office to check our P.O. Box. My kids never leave the car on those occasions, so standing on the street in line for ice cream already felt a bit vulnerable.

We weren’t just scared of contracting COVID. We were nervous about being Asian in public. As I placed my order for our ice cream cones, I suddenly heard the same woman’s raised voice behind me. It escalated quickly into a heated conversation as they went back and…

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9X Top Writer. Proud grad of CA public schools. Committed to justice & leadership development. Wife & mom of 2 girls & 2 big dogs. Love to eat almost everything