Ignorance Can be an Excuse

I can remember as clear as day my grandmother Manello telling me to heed Randy Newman’s warning in the song Short People. It was her belief that short people were to be mistrusted—they lied and schemed. They all had beady eyes and rat teeth which was further proof of their evil intent.

I was to avoid short people at all costs.

My grandmother, was not a person of low intellect or someone of mal-intent, she was just not well-educated, which accounted for her racist comments.

And when my cleaning woman came to my house last Friday to do her weekly work she remarked at the sight my redecorating Oh my!! You do such a good job. Everything is so like you. And I love that you do not decorate Italian(like).

Had that last remark come from any other person I would have said What is that supposed to mean? How do Italians decorate?

But I understood that her comment wasn’t meant to be ethnically unkind—racist. The comment stemmed her life experience and her limited factual base. It wasn’t racist because it was all that she knew.

And when my grandmother was done spewing her words of off-center wisdom I said But Nonny—that song is a parody. It is meant to demonstrate the evil of prejudice—not the evil of petite stature. Besides which—you stand 5’0”tall —and I stand 5’1”—we are both short people—should we be avoiding each other?

I had given her something to think about.

Which is why I think racist remarks must always be understood with the context of which they are being said. One must determine the baseline of a person’s knowledge. And while ignorencia non excusat is the basis of law, sometimes practically speaking,  ignorance is a valid excuse. Sometimes things said and done are not an issue of not knowing better, they are simply an issue of not knowing that you do not know better.