Sherri Ross

I’m not one to cause a scene. I hate confrontation and, sadly, will usually do anything to avoid it including let people walk over me or say things that bother me. I will admit that alcohol does tend to give me some liquid courage (not always a good thing) when it comes to voicing my honest feelings, but I still hardly ever make waves. Ever.

Tonight that was not that case. While dining out at a local steak house in Sandy Springs, Georgia, the husband and I were surrounded on both sides of our booth by diners voicing their thoughts on the recent presidential election. I understand everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, after a few choice words from one of the ladies sitting behind Daniel, I stopped eating and listened more intently. She wasn’t hard to hear – she was loud and clear, her voice shrill over the clatter of forks and spoons clanging against plates.

I am not going to repeat what she said here, because that just gives her words more eyes/ears and exposure. I will say that she had words for and about every minority group one could think of and even gave a dissertation on Roe v. Wade. I dropped my fork a few times (quite loudly, on purpose) in complete shock at what came out of her mouth. I nearly jumped up a few times and Daniel quietly begged me not to deck her. I had never heard such prejudice and horrible things come from someone so “matter of factly” before. She truly believed what she was spewing. I finally lost my appetite and just wanted to leave.

I told Daniel that when either we left or they did (White Wig and her friend) that I was going to say something. He said he normally wouldn’t want me to make a scene, but today he was for anything I wanted to do – he couldn’t believe what they had said either and he was just as upset. White Wig and her friend were currently eating their ice cream sundae for dessert and I heard her ask her friend, “Do I have anything white on my face?” (as in whip cream) I nearly snorted myself into next week on that one.

I had never confronted someone like this before and I didn’t know what I was going to say or how it would go, but I couldn’t be silent. My Muslim friends are too intelligent and mean too much to me to let her get away with her petty prejudice, my black friends have worked too hard and are too loved to let her think she knows the first thing about them and what they’ve been and continue to go through. We finally paid the check and warned our server what was about to happen – just in case someone got in trouble. We didn’t want her to have to deal with any aftermath. She let us know that White Wig had been spewing since she walked in and they had already heard some stuff while she was waiting for a seat. So very sad….

As we got up to leave, I walked over to her table and proceeded to upend every minority “truth” she declared to her friend during dinner. She tried to rebut a few times, but I cut her off. I told her if she wanted to spew all that crap to stay home where others don’t have to hear it. I was seething as I said it. And as we walked out I told her, “I hope you choke on your prejudice.”

I was shaking as I walked to the car and scared to death someone was going to come after me. I heard her cackle as I left, but I didn’t care. I do respect free speech, but there’s free speech and then there’s ‘you can’t hold your wine so let’s tell everyone in Longhorn your every thought and show how ignorant you really are.’ Also, Daniel (and she) better be glad I was stone cold sober, because it would have been so much worse had I not been. White Wig, you got Rossed. And if I ever see you again, you’ll get it again until you get some sense.