It just seems like a man can’t live out his creed without some negroidal handling his groceries these days.
The Longview (Texas) News-Journal (“Lawsuit claims black sacker, ban from Big Sandy grocery store violated customer’s rights“):
A Hawkins man is claiming his civil rights and religious freedom were violated earlier this year when a black man sacked his groceries and a Big Sandy grocery store owner banned the customer from the business.
DeWitt R. Thomas filed a federal lawsuit in July against Keith Langston, owner of Two Rivers Grocery & Market.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Thomas entered the market on March 5 to buy food.
He stated in a nine-page, hand-written lawsuit that he told the grocery sacker, a black man, “Wait a minute, don’t touch my groceries. I can’t have someone negroidal touch my food. It’s against my creed.”
Thomas claimed the cashier was “perplexed” by his request and yelled at him to take his items and leave.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Thomas said, “It’s pretty simple. They treated me really bad because I told them it was against my creed.”
According to the lawsuit, Thomas went on to explain he meant a black person when he used the term “negroidal.”
The sacker, Aaron Menefee, said he thought Thomas was just kidding around.
“The first time he said it, I thought he was joking,” Menefee said. “Then he just kept repeating it.”
While I’m not a religious man myself, I try to tolerate a man’s creed. Still, Thomas is a hard case. On the other hand, I’m not sure this was really necessary:
Langston wasn’t in the store at the time, but his employees told him about the incident.
“I decided when I heard about what happened that I was going to file a criminal trespass against him,” Langston said. “I just had to wait for him to be present so he could sign it.”
When Thomas returned two days later, he noticed the same black man would be sacking his groceries, so he again requested the “Negro” not handle his groceries, according to the lawsuit.
This time, Langston was there. He called police to serve Thomas a criminal trespass warning. While waiting for the police, an employee locked the doors, and the lawsuit claims Thomas was “unlawfully restrained.”
Thomas said Langston broke the law the night he locked him in the store.
“We were closing, and I don’t know of a business that doesn’t lock their doors when they close. It keeps more people from coming in,” Langston said.
Thomas said he doesn’t understand why he had to deal with the same situation twice.
“My question is, why after I told them how I felt and that it was against my creed did this negroid try to impress himself upon me and try to handle my groceries again.” Thomas said.
I fully respect the owner’s decision not to want this nutcase in his store, creed or no. But on what basis would he hold him in the store waiting for the police? For that matter, unless he’d asked the man to leave and he refused, on what basis would he get a criminal trespass order served on a man in a public accommodation?
Oh, in case you were wondering about the “creed” in question:
Thomas said his religious beliefs are based on Vedism, which he said encompasses Hinduism.
“Vedism translates into knowledge. I am not this way because I am ignorant. Ignorance is the enemy,” he said.
In this case, I believe Pogo’s observation holds true.
