This is so NOT OK - utterly inexcusable

"I hope you're not offended, but I sort of guessed that you were Americans. You know what I mean."

A 20-something woman and an older woman who was with her entered the bank's secured ATM area last night, well after dark. The kid & I were in there withdrawing cash, vaguely aware yet reasonably unconcerned about who might be coming in with us. The street was well-trafficked, and the 7-11 next door was filled with people.

The implications of the woman's statement were obvious. She felt safe coming into the secured room to use the second ATM, because neither the kid nor I were committing the offense of "banking while brown". We're not Mexican, after all, and therefore presumably wouldn't rob her of her pesos.

I was so stunned, so horrified, that I only managed to say something along the lines of how, having been here much of the summer so far, I might as well be Mexican. She commented that I looked familiar; I said that I've been in Mexico for several weeks, and felt like I must've been around just about everywhere. We established that we've been at the same hotel the last few nights, and that was that. The Kid & I left and headed back to the hotel.

Of course, once we were a few steps down the block, he asked what she'd meant. I hate those questions, but now that he's ten, I really don't filter my answers anymore. We talked about latent racism, about how people who rely on the media or movies for any sort of cultural understanding are getting a warped perspective, and yeah - a little bit about how women have both realistic and manufactured fears that undoubtedly played into her statement as well. I explained again the difference between fear and vigilance, a topic we discussed a couple days ago when reading a guidebook over breakfast that advised tourists to avoid the Metro and peseros. (We then proceeded to take both.)

He was asleep when I turned on CNN International to catch the news. The leading US story was of the beating death of a Mexican immigrant at the hands of white US teenagers. I think I'm glad that the kid didn't see that - there's no way to explain it at all, other than that it's another example of how the insane "Us vs. Them" rhetoric in the US has real consequences for real people.

I wish I'd have had the presence of mind to simply say "No, I have no idea what you mean. Can you explain why us being American mattered in the slightest?"

I don't deny that there's crime in Mexico City; hey, I've ridden the Metro, after all. At least crime is out there - you see it, you know what it is. Racism is so incredibly pervasive, something that slips in silently, so much so that a gringa who is presumably in Mexico by choice! is afraid to encounter Mexicans at the ATM.

So disappointed, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I'm sorry. We have to do better than this.