Readers Write: Racism shocks patrons at Manhasset cafe

The Island Now

This is an open letter to our community on the North Shore about an upsetting racist experience I had this morning. This is to alert you to the fact that racism is alive and well in our community.

While shopping at Barnes & Noble in Manhasset, I sat down in the café for coffee. Shortly thereafter, an African-American mother and her two daughters sat down at the table across from me. The children were clearly enjoying their drinks and snacks while taking a break from Christmas shopping. Truly precious.

Suddenly, their mother began yelling at a white woman at the next table. Evidently, this white woman not only turned her back on the African-American family when they sat down, but she also moved her table away from them! Café patrons were in shock at this blatant racism.

I gave the mother thumbs-up hand signals demonstrating my support for her during this ugly incident.

Finally, the mom gathered her daughters and angrily left the café. I heard her tell her daughters that this is what she has been experiencing her whole life and now they sadly have just experienced the same thing.

Note that her daughters were probably in elementary school and now these children are permanently scarred for the rest of their lives.

Wake up, everyone! It is time to address these racist incidents head-on whenever they happen. Let us unite our society and nation, not divide it.

In the meantime, if the woman who committed this terrible offense to a lovely family reads this letter, I hope that she will come forward to apologize and to do so by responding to my Letter to the Editor in this publication.

Our country still has lots of work to do in addressing racism. We cannot yield to open discrimination by bigots. It is time to stamp it out.

Hopefully, in this New Year, we will continue to address this horrid issue that plagues and undermines our country. May we mend and heal.

Eleanor Lange

Manhasset

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