Political Indoctrination at Our Local Grocery Store

I saw two black posters, framed and displayed at both entrances of our local Wegman’s grocery store – “Stop hate, end racism, spread love.” Nobody can argue with the message, but I find it offensive because it is political indoctrination in a place where I buy food.

I asked the cashiers’ manager, a young self-described black woman, why a grocery store would get involved in politics and political indoctrination of the day, coming from the left side of the political spectrum instead of selling groceries. Her answer was that she was from Buffalo and everyone in her town, which suffered violence at the hands of a deranged man, was happy that her employer stood behind its employees. But Wegman’s headquarters is not in Buffalo, it is in Rochester, NY. She just stared at me.

I told her that I failed to understand how a piece of paper with three sentences on it protected her from “white supremacists and racists” in this particular store.

She replied that she felt safe because those two posters were there. I asked her how a poster would protect her from another deranged individual walking in with a gun and committing violence against innocent bystanders and shoppers.

I further inquired if money would not be better spent on caring for the mentally ill and to institutionalize those with violent tendencies, until such time that it would be safe to have them walk among unsuspecting citizens. “No,” she answered, “hate and racism cannot be reversed.”

I asked her if she could give me one example of racism and hate that she experienced here in northern Virginia. Her answer was that she did not feel comfortable talking about it in the grocery store.

I replied that she made my point. I do not feel comfortable being lectured and politically indoctrinated in a grocery store either, by posters prominently displayed at both entrances, however seemingly innocent the three sentences may be. It is political pandering to the left and its divisive agenda. I prefer to find milk in a grocery store, not politics. On this day, the shelves where milk was found were empty. There was Fair Life milk in the back of the store.

I ended our conversation after I told her that I did not feel comfortable buying food in a place that is trying to indoctrinate me, a survivor of communism. We had such political indoctrination posters under communism all over the place, including grocery stores.