I got back from New York City late last evening, and let me just say that my first experience with Jet Blue was terrible.  I generally fly on Delta, but I found a very cheap flight on Jet Blue, so I decided to give them a try.  My flight to New York was delayed for an hour and a half.  On my flight back home, there was a four and a half hour delay.  In both instances, Jet Blue claimed that the delay was due to weather.  Let me point out that there was no rain or snow during either one of these delays.  I wanted to get the Jet Blue bashing out of the way, now on to my point.

As I sat in the airport, waiting for my plane to finally board, I met a nice woman in the terminal waiting area.  I was reading a New York Times article about the health care debate, when this seemingly intelligent woman decided to strike up a conversation with me.  She mentioned that she lived in upstate New York, and was in Florida visiting her elderly mother (it seems that every New Yorker has a mother or grandmother living in South Florida).  In our brief conversation, she mentioned that she watched Fox News, and was especially fond of Bill O’Reilly.  I told her that I was a liberal and preferred MSNBC, but that I thought all the “news” pundits from both networks were biased and not real journalists.  We proceeded to chat about health care, taxes, President Obama, and immigration.  When I brought up the topic of immigration and how to handle illegal immigrants, I sensed a bit of mild racism towards Hispanics, but nothing to get alarmed about.

After about 15 minutes of casual conversation, our plane was finally ready to begin boarding.  We both stood up and got in line.  As we were waiting, this woman asked me if there was anyone on Fox News that I liked, I mentioned to her that I thought Shepard Smith wasn’t so bad.  I in turn asked her if there was anyone on MSNBC that she could tolerate, she couldn’t think of anyone.  I then brought up Rachel Maddow, thinking that perhaps this woman would be supportive of a successful, intelligent woman like herself.  What came out of this woman’s mouth next shocked me.  Keep in mind that this woman has only known me for about 20 minutes, and also knows that I swing left.  In reference to Rachel Maddow, she said, “I really can’t stand that ugly smug dyke bitch.  I wish they would throw her off the air already.”  I was speechless for about a minute.  I then mentioned to her that Rachel Maddow has one of the highest rated programs on MSNBC.  This woman said that she didn’t care about Ms. Maddow’s success, and that it was terrible that they allow a dyke on television.  To avoid an argument, I told this racist woman that I needed to use the restroom and walked away.

I really was appalled at what this woman had said.  I would expect a comment like that from some uneducated idiot, but this woman seemed completely normal.  She was well dressed, well spoken, well educated, and successful.  This just goes to show the extent of the bigotry and racism that runs rampant in this country.  This woman, who barely knew anything about me, showed me her true colors in less than 30 minutes of casual conversation.  I have come to the realization that we have underestimated the extent of racism and bigotry in America.