"Witnesses told authorities that Ellis cut in front of waiting customers at the Walmart, shoved merchandise already placed on a conveyor belt out of the way, and became belligerent when confronted.
Ellis maintained she was merely joining her cousin, whose checkout line was moving more quickly. She claimed in a written complaint to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that she was then pushed by a white customer, hassled by store employees, called racial slurs and physically mistreated by Kennett police officers."
I've seen similar scenario's play out many times. One person will get in line while their "friend, cousin, or whomever" will continue to shop. When the person in line is next, the one shopping will push their way through the line and add stuff to what the first person had. Irritating, for sure, bad manners, definitely, but worth getting upset over: probable not. To be honest, most of us have done something similar. Husband and wife shopping and pickup the wrong size of something, or suddenly remembered and item forgotten, or noticed a defect in an item and want to make a quick exchange, One person, usually the husband, runs off to make things right while the other waits her turn in line.
We understand this and make allowances for it. What happened in this story is slightly different. People don't might being nice and helping out but no one likes to be taken advantaged of.
One day I was in a pet store and stopped to look at a display. A woman and her child approached me and although there was plenty of room to have either walked in front of me, which should have required a polite "excuse me" or to have walked behind me, the woman instead choose to stand there at my side and say "excuuuuse me" the kind that reeks of bad attitude. I refused to move and the woman finally had to walk around me, as she should have done in the first place.
The same attitude is on display in this Walmart story. Had the woman said a polite "excuse me" as she approach I would have stepped forward without a thought. Had the shopper in Wal-mart asked politely if she could join her friend in line ahead of them, most customers would not have hesitated in giving permission.
Respect is the key to good relationships and building trust among people and between the races and cultures.
Going on tirades like the president of Virginia's NAACP did over Norfolk's animal shelter's decision to discount adoption fees for black cats and dogs doesn't solve anything. Such reactions only make one look reactionary, unreasonable, foolish,
and ill tempered.
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