About 12 years ago, while I was buying coffee, a 7-Eleven clerk told me how irritating an interaction with a customer had been. According to the cashier, the customer made an incorrect, sweeping generalization. The customer pointed to a front page newspaper story about the war in Iraq as she spoke:
Customer: Look at what your people are doing to our people.
Clerk: Those are not my people. I'm from Pakistan.
Customer: Yes, but your brothers...
Clerk: Those are not my brothers. I'm from Pakistan.
It's unnerving to realize that, in the election and post-election climate of today, this would qualify as a relatively mild exchange.
