This Little Piggy

Swine flu. I was going to stay away from it but could not resist any longer. In my current state of extreme stress and general bitterness about life (mainly involving a total loss of flooded basement due to a drain backup, in addition to school ending and finals, with the extra added touch of the puppy shitting mightily on a number of non-shit-resistant items in my home), I am less than thrilled with the reaction to this public health issue. It is fast becoming hysteria. In the face of an actual crisis I very much hope that government agencies, information-disseminating entities, and the general public would act with greater efficiency, but current actions of all would suggest otherwise. I'm all for getting worked up when the situation calls for it, but in this case it clearly does not quite yet. 

My biggest rant with the swine flu, however, has not to do with the public's overlarge reaction but with the shitty racist joke I heard two days ago.  Some potential basement guys were giving me their (wildly overpriced bordering on silly) estimate for cleaning up the mess. I was grilling one of them about his estimate, mostly asking him to justify his 350% bigger than everyone else's price. My obvious unwillingness to be dicked over did not indicate to him that I might not be a receptive audience for a funny racist joke, though, because upon conclusion of our discussion (me, and I quote: "With that ridiculous estimate, I'm going to have to look around. I do not plan to rent big fans for $1200.00. It's not going to happen."), he told me (and again, I do not know why he felt this level of random intimacy with me was appropriate, see above hardassedness about quote) that he had gotten a text about swine flu, snicker, smirk. "I probably don't want to hear about that," I said (Note to self: use of probably is wishy-washy. In the future do not leave room for interpretation).

He then said something about  Some Wetbacks Infecting something something (starting with N and E, of course).  I went all Maya Angelou. "Wow, that's really racist. And since it's mostly American tourists returning from vacation spreading it around, it's not accurate." Guy laughs awkwardly, maybe starting to realize that he did not really know his audience here.  "That's not a great way to get business. We're finished here, thank you."

And then I just sat there for a while and thought about that. I had no idea that this would lead to yet another reason to bash immigrants, Mexicans in particular. It always kind of hits me upside the head afresh every time I hear shit like that, even after many years of being married to an Arab (gasp!), possibly the most hated immigrant group of our time. And who in the hell thinks it is appropriate to tell racist jokes while trying to get someone to pay them large sums of money? That is not good business sense.