sh.ai.ex

An order fades into the drive-thru screen; I watch as the column descends down into a pillar of text as the order is taken. My manager starts to get the food, bagging and boxing them. I turn around, without actually memorizing the order and start to get lids as the drink machine spits out the cups for the order. I turn around again, looking at the screen.

“Hi-C…. 4 medium Hi-C’s. Huh”, I thought, “Must be black people…”

I seal the lids onto the cups, turning around to serve the order and put the drinks into a drink holder; my manager setting the food in front of me, neatly folded. I open the window and greet the customer before I hand them their food and drinks; surely enough, the driver and the passengers were all black.

Now, I don’t mean that in a bad way. After you work in such a place, you learn how to discriminate; as in, distinguish between; different groups of people just by looking at what they ordered.

Is that Hi-C you see on the screen? Chances are, the person who ordered that is black.

Were those two ice cream cones you needed? That’s probably for some old people, probably a couple.

A large diet coke by itself? Probably a self-conscious woman.

Apple dippers or a salad instead of fries? Typical young/slim mother.

One small meal with a coffee or small drink? Someone going to work.

Of course, that’s not the case everytime, there’s always people who just order what they enjoy, outside of the food ordering stereotype.

It just amuses me so much how this is true; how does it come to that? How come so many black people order Hi-C? Old people and their ice cream cones? It really fascinates me.

Maybe it’s society, maybe even Kenan and Kel; maybe something else. I sure can’t explain it. To be honest, I’d rather leave it be. It’s amusing how it is, wondering why it’s like that.

Some questions are better left unanswered, I guess. Though I’d like to know any answers people might suggest… or even any other stereotypes. Did I miss something here? Do a certain group of people do something else? I’d really like to know.