Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Shame!

People in every culture have a distinctive way of responding to situations, but perhaps the most revealing is how they react to injustice.

At the grocery store this morning, just as I was leaving, a woman approached the security guard and threw down her purse. I'm not sure why -- perhaps he had questioned her about something. Her skin was darker than most, so perhaps she was of North African descent. But I couldn't tell for sure.

Then she began pacing around yelling, "la honte!, la honte!" which means "shame!" The security guard picked up her bag and began to carry it away. Even though I had left the store with my heavy load, all the way down the street I could still her shouting, "shame!" at the security guard. And perhaps the whole store, and maybe the whole world.

The same situation would be almost unthinkable in the US. Most Americans avoid making a scene in public places. Or if they do, they might ask to see the manager. Some might shout, but their choice of words might be a bit more profane.

To yell "shame" in a public place is to invoke a powerful category beyond law or ideology. To heap shame on the security guard, this woman was saying that the moral order had been disturbed somehow. Maybe she hoped that others would recognize the immorality of the moment and rush to her defense.

This woman did not fight injustice with a threatened lawsuit, but by crying out to her neighbors that the guard, the store, and maybe everyone else too, had something to answer for in their souls.

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