TOWEL HEAD

A month or so before the last Presidential election, I was working for an older single mom of a 35-year-old autistic son. She was a joy to talk to, full of life, an avid gardner.
The last day at her house I asked about one of her antiques and she spoke about getting it from an old friend who lived in London until recently. “He had to get out of there,” she explained to me, “you know, because of all the Towel Heads.” That shut me up.
She went on to explain in more, unnecessary depth.....and then finished up by exclaiming to me: “God help us if Obama wins!”
Aside from the presumption of where I might stand politically, all of this racism was a mind-slam from out of left field. This sweet, fun and funny woman was infected with the nasty, nasty disease of Stupid Simplistic Thinking.

I returned - somewhat hesitatingly - this past Spring to do some minor decorative work for her and, again, she brought up that term “Towel Head” in conversation.
I quickly responded with “....that’s not nice! You can’t use that term and lump so many different kinds of people all together!”
“Well, the Muslims are the source of all the problems in the world today,” she replied.
“No, that’s not true,” was the the only answer I felt like giving.
The next day we were having an amusing conversation and at one point she joked about how she’s not allowed to say such-and-such, and I simply looked at her sweet face...and smiled.