Last night I got my hair cut. Apparently I just missed some drama. One of the stylists had a confrontation with a demanding customer.

"She wanted me to jump just because she said so," the stylist told me later, "But I'm not a dog."

The aggrivated stylist was the one assigned the ambigious tasks of cutting my hair (I'm never quite sure what I want to get done).

...

From what I could gather, the customer's main infraction was bypassing the reception area and coming directly to the stylist to inquire about a haircut. It didn't sound like there was anyone at the receptionist desk (they were all eating) -- so that is an offense I personally may have been able to forgive.

It does sound like the customer had an attitude. All the stylists spelled out "B-I-T-C-H" when describing her in my presence.

...

So it was understandable the stylist shared a lot of griping. It was very targeted griping until she said, "Asians and those towelheads are the worst!"

"Huh?" I said and looked at her blurry reflection in the mirror (my glasses were in my hand).

"The Asians and those towelheads, you know, the ones from India. They always come up right to you - they never wait at the desk."

I like how they feel the need to spell out a word that is commonly allowed on network television, but they felt completely at ease at uttering a racial slur.

"Oh." I said.

"And those towelheads -- I can't STAND them. The women, they cover their faces and they don't want the men to see them, you know? So when they come to get their haircut-- they don't want to be out here where someone can see them. They want you to take them in the back to cut their hair. I don't want to take them back there-- it's a pain in the A-S-S. I have to set up a whole chair back there [and what if they fall down back there and break a leg]?"

"Oh," I said. So far I thought those were legitimate concerns for a business.

"There was this one who wanted to go back there and she didn't even have that dot on her head. And I told her 'No.' I wouldn't take her 'cause I don't trust them."

"Who's that?" Another stylist said.

"Those freaking towelheads!" my stylist said.

"Oh yeah- I don't trust them either. They could do anything to you back there. They could have a bomb in their purse! I refuse to take them."

["Where do they go then?" I asked.

"Not here," my stylist said, "They probably go around and ask the other salons in the mall to see if they will take them. I bet no one takes them."]

The conversation soon drifted back to the B-I-T-C-H but they kept coming back to the notion that one of those poor women who are merely looking to retain their dignity and get a haircut is going to attack them with a bomb in their purse.

I definitely wanted to say something but I had to choose my words wisely. Afterall this woman I wanted to reprimand was holding sharp scissors-- and the future of my hair in her hands.

So I settled on saying, "Well the way I think of it is a bomb is an awful lot of trouble to take out one hair salon. There are much better targets."

My stylist didn't even skip a beat. "This mall does get really crowded, you know."

I still maintain there is a vast difference between New River Valley mall and sports arenas, public transportation systems, federal buildings... and pretty much any other mall in America.

So I believe the stylists are all going to continue their fears and biases - no matter how silly they are.

Actually, I think I'm going to write the manager a letter. Racial slurs have no business in a place of business. It won't change the the stylists' souls by any means. But at least they won't believe their behavior to be acceptable by all.

Here's another thing that surprised me. After all the speculation on the "towelheads" my stylist returned her bitter lips to the earlier customer.

"It's just as well [the customer stormed out]," she said, "I didn't want to serve her anyway. I've seen her in here before and she looks like a person who'd be prejudiced against me."

I've read before that when a spouse starts getting really jealous and suspicious that his/her partner is cheating on them -- that is often a sign that the spouse, not the partner, is the one cheating!

I guess the same thing may be true to those with prejudices. They know what hatred lies in their own hearts so it is easy to suspect the same of others.