children learn from their parents

I made a quick trip to the grocery store this afternoon and as I was standing in line I glanced at the headlines in the local paper. The main story was not familiar to me and I didn't really give it much thought, but it included two photos: one of a teenage girl and one of a 20-something man with a shaved head.

Soon a father and son were behind me in line and the father said, "What is a nice looking young girl doing with a scruffy guy like that?" Then, after looking at the article, he said, "Oh, that's a game warden." And he proceeded to give his son the "facts" of the article, which includes the game warden being sentenced to manslaughter after shooting the girl's boyfriend. (You can read the article here if you are really interested.)

As I said, I'm not familiar with the circumstances surrounding this particular article, but here is what I do know: without reading the article and not even glancing at the headline the father made a judgment simply by the photos, conveying to his son that it is acceptable to judge others based on their appearance. I have to wonder what he would have said had the man been Hispanic or Black.

Certainly I don't know anything about this father and it is quite possible that he is an amazing role model; I hope that was an isolated incident, but sadly I'm not too optimistic.