{"id":203,"date":"2009-10-07T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-07T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/10\/my-people-the-people-of-wal-mart.html"},"modified":"2009-10-07T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-07T22:08:00","slug":"my-people-the-people-of-wal-mart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/10\/my-people-the-people-of-wal-mart.html","title":{"rendered":"My People, the People of Wal-Mart"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Hillary wrote about the website, peopleofwalmart<\/a>. At the time I refrained from commenting because, well, I felt bad. I
\ngrew up in small towns around Missouri where Wal-Mart was the primary source
\nof…everything. And while the people of Wal-Mart were fair enough fodder for my
\nfriends and I, <\/span>I didn’t want the
\ncoastal elite mocking “my people”, such as they were.<\/p>\n

That’s how I imagined the website’s audience; sheltered east coast jerks who thought the heartland was a group of throwaway
\nflyover states (forget the fact that even my Midwestern friends assured me that
\nthe website was enjoyable and ridiculous).<\/p>\n

Last night changed my mind. I’m currently in Missouri
\nvisiting my family, and took a quick jaunt with my mom to, you guessed it,
\nWal-Mart. As we waited in the checkout line, I started thinking about the
\nwebsite, mentally shaking my head at those who would so cruelly mock the poor,
\nthe obese and the fashionably ridiculous. Then, I casually glanced to the
\nright, and did a double-take when I saw a man covered<\/b> in dirt and mud.
\nTop to bottom.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mama raised me right, so my jaw didn’t exactly drop, but the mind boggled. He looked like the grown up version of Pig Pen from Peanuts. All I could think was, “You’re kidding me, right? People buy food here!”<\/p>\n

On the way home, all I could think was, “Touch\u00e9<\/span>, peopleofwalmart.com, touch\u00e9<\/span>.” I still think the website is wrong and judgy, and just plain mean. I tend to be one of those sanctimonious jerks whose bleeding heart often stubbornly refuses to make judgments, even when all evidence points to a judgment fairly made.<\/p>\n

Perhaps not this time, though. While the Wal-Mart website is mean<\/i>, I grudgingly admit it can be dead-on at times. I don’t know what that makes me (hypocritical? snob? witchy and b*tchy?) — sadly, there’s no moral lesson to take away here. Unless it’s the lesson I take from one of our commenters; as Carrie said in response to Hillary’s post on judging<\/a>, “Anyone who thinks they don’t judge or discriminate needs to get over themselves<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

Consider me officially getting over myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, Hillary wrote about the website, peopleofwalmart. At the time I refrained from commenting because, well, I felt bad. I grew up in small towns around Missouri where Wal-Mart was the primary source of…everything. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}