A Face You Can Trust?

For those of you who may be unaware, I have been a white, Caucasian male my entire life. On top of that, I've grown into a rather big guy. I stand somewhere around 6' 3-4", and weigh in at, well, let's just suffice it to say that I fill out my frame pretty good. Over the past several years, I've opted for a bit of a full goatee to fill out my face and hide my babyface. During this time, I've never, at least in my estimation, been discrimated against or really even looked at twice. On this past Monday that all changed.

Prior readers will recall that I currently languish in the world that is known as Christian retail. The good Lord has seen fit in His immense grace to provide me a position that provides for minimal interaction with customers but, on occasion, this protocol must be breached and I find myself asked to answer some questions or carry a large box out to an elderly lady's car. Traditonally, while this is not my most favorite time of the day, I'm okay with it. This leads me to Monday.

I was sitting at my desk, watching the clock at the bottom right-hand corner of my screen, willing the digital numbers to change more quickly, and I found myself summoned to our customer service area to help carry a package to someone's car. "No problem," I thought to myself and slowly, sleepily ambled over to the appropriate region of the store. I saw two older gentlemen standing at the counter, a medium-sized box before them. Almost immediately upon my entering their view, one of the gentlemen wrapped his arms around the box and said, "Let me see how heavy this is...Oh, it's no problem! I can carry this out!" I shrugged, smiled my assent, and headed back to watching the digits shift.

Not long after, the young associate who had summoned me walked back to my corner and shared, "That was weird, huh? They were going on and on about the one guy's arm not being able to carry it out and the other guy having some condition but when they saw you...!" I've got to say, this was a first. Sure I'm a big guy. Yes, I have the goatee which can tend to be a bit unruly. And yes, I'd neglected to shave for a few, okay, four days prior. But I work for a Christian bookstore! I was only left to sit and ponder. Was it me? Was it them? Hmmm....