My stepmom Julie called my husband the other day to ask if she could enter Chloe in something called "The Cutest Baby" contest at the Walmart in Washington. Floyd said, "Sure..why not?" There were atleast a dozen or so contestants involved. Walmart took the picture that you submitted of your baby and placed it on a jar, and people could vote for who they believed is the cutest baby by placing money in the jar. The contest runs until September 9th, and whoever has the most money in their jar will win a basket full of baby goodies (i.e. bath wash, lotion, wipes, etc.) Also, every cent collected will go to the Children's Hospital . I think that is splendid. I love a good cause. When there are "baby contests" like that which are all in good fun and support something wonderful like the Children's Hospital, I'm all for it. When it comes to those creepy JonBenet type "beauty" contest for little girls...eh, not so much. Those make me a little queasy.
Anyway, we stopped by Walmart to surreptiously scope out the "competition" and throw a buck or two in her jar. I must say, Julie picked a great picture of Chloe to send in and her jar has a very prominent spot on the table. If you happen to take a stroll into the Washington Walmart, check out the baby table in the front of the store by the customer service department. If you want to vote for Chloe, her picture is easy to spot. She's the cute one. :o)
Floyd threw a couple of dollars into Chloe's jar, and we talked about spreading the wealth a bit among the others. When I searched in my wallet, I discovered I had no paper money; however there was an insane amount of change in there. So I placed a good amount in every other jar, especially those that seemed a little empty. After all, every one of those babies were adorable. Each jar had a red lid with a big circle cut out about the size of a half dollar for easy money insertion...all but one jar. The single lid that was different than the other red lids didn't have a half dollar sized slot; instead it was a thin straight slit about two inches long. Here's the thing that stood out, and as I stated in the title of this post, it's "just an observation": The jar with the small slit in its lid also had a picture of the only black baby entered in the contest.
Now, I don't want to accuse anyone of what COULD be seen as a blatant racist move. I'm not one to blow the whistle on things. I'm usually an easy going, somewhat quiet person. But for some reason, that image kind of stuck with me.
It was actually Floyd that pointed out that there was a lid with a different opening. After I inspected the others, I told him "It's also the only one that doesn't have a picture of a white baby." He replied, "Yeah....I noticed that, too."
I mean, let's look at the facts. Washington is a nice, small town with what seems to be a predominantly white population. But then again, maybe Walmart only had fifteen jars with the bigger openings and had a last second entry into the contest, so they found a different jar. I just really, really hope it was pure coincidence.
Please feel free to leave any comments on what it seems like in your eyes. Perhaps I'm just being silly. After all, I am an overly sensitive artist who sometimes observes the world differently. Lemme know your thoughts, and if possible, check out the Cutest Baby contest at Walmart. :)
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2 comments:
Yes, that does seem odd. It's hard to tell if it's a coincidence or not, but you would think that someone would have noticed and used an exacto knife to make the hole bigger.
Interesting observation. I don't know what to think about that.
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