Bigotry on Parade

My 19-year-old daughter and a friend gathered with many other spectators this year to enjoy the Castro Valley Light Parade.
What they did NOT enjoy was watching a fellow spectator go from one vendor to another, all the while shining her cell phone light in their eyes, filming them, and asking, “Do you have a permit? You must have a permit, you know!”
They all said yes…and the only vendors she interrogated were Hispanic. This same white woman did this twice…to the same vendors. There is no evidence that this woman was a part of any organizing committee for this event.
I’m afraid incidents like these, and worse, are likely to escalate as some feel more emboldened to act on their prejudices. My daughter was not stunned by this woman’s actions, but she was too scared to say anything to her. But she told me.
And now I’m telling you. We may advertise that hate has no place in Castro Valley, but it lives here nonetheless.

–Dawn Torre, Castro Valley