OBAMA?

From what I understand, some of you have heard a recycled form of this joke by now. Sorry for not blogging about it before it got to you, but here it is:

I had just moved to Arizona, a state superior to New Mexico in so many ways. I was shopping at Sam Walton's empire for a few basic things that every guy needs in order to make his apartment feel less like a campout.
As I stood in line with my roommate Joe, I noticed an odd situation taking place in front of me. There stood a lanky Caucasian Wal-Mart employee at the check out stand, with shoulder length, scraggly, dark-brown almost black hair. He had finished scanning all the items soon to be purchased by an African American lady who was accompanied by a few friends of the same race.
As the woman dug through her purse deciding which form of plastic to use in order to complete her purchase, the white man, eager to use the tool of casual conversation to kill time, pointed at the women and asked her a very simple question:


"OBAMA?"


. . .


The woman gave him a puzzled stare, which he must have taken as a signal for him to repeat his extremely pertinent question.


"Obama?"


. . .


"What?" the woman eventually replied, as the man behind the counter still held his finger in the air pointing in her direction.

"Barack Obama," he answered pushing his still-pointed finger forward and back with each syllable of the president's name.

. . .


"Huh?"

"O-BAM-A," came the reply as night worker continued to point his finger but this time moved it slower and more deliberately to match his speech pattern.

At this point my roommate Joe (who was standing in front of me in line) turned and pointed at me and asked, "John McCain?"

I had to turn away to muffle my laughter as I heard the earnest Wal-Mart employee, seeking to clarify his inquiry, state, "Your pin, Obama?"

"What are you talking about?" the black woman asked, her patience beginning to run a little thin.

The white man leaned forward, pointed directly at an ornament pinned on the lady's jacket and slowly said, "Your pin. Barack Obama."

At this point the woman finally caught on, and looked down at her pin which flamboyantly proclaimed the message "Yes We Did!"

Her long awaited reply came, as the tone of her voice changed from slightly annoyed to non-chalant. "No. Southwest Airlines."

The confusion cleared as everyone standing in the line realized that our friends in the travel industry must have done something they felt was pretty significant and passed out pins with the "Yes We Did!" tagline to celebrate.

I however, felt the misunderstood Wal-Mart checker had a legitimate question that went unanswered. So to compensate, whenever I see a darker skinned brother nearby, I make sure to point at him and ask the oh-so-important question posed on a fateful Monday night not so long ago:


"OBAMA?"


No one has really figured out how to respond yet.