[somberi]

It just so happened my wife and I were in a CVS (a US pharmacy chain) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (think pooches inside Gucci bags), and I wanted to get a Deodorant.

We had to call the staff to unlock small pigeon hole after another just to see what was written on the labels.

As always it is not just one thing - the lady that came to help us was in a Hijab and was studying medicine and was helping her parents who immigrated from Turkey and own the operation rights of that store, on thanksgiving eve.

May be I am Old, but I did not mind the locked shelves after meeting her.

[z9znz]

Maybe I'm not putting all the pieces together correctly.

What is the significance of her wearing a hijab? Why is that worthy of mention, or the fact that the owner family was from Turkey? And also the Thanksgiving eve bit?

[yadaeno]

Op is explaining why this particular interaction was "worthwhile" enough to justify the inconvenience of pressing the assistance button.

If this had been Gary whose worked at CVS for 17 years and hates his job i'm sure the detail would have been left out.

[unsupp0rted]

And Gary’s just as worthy of an income as any other person, hijab or no, immigrant or no.

OP is doing that thing in which immigrants aren’t people, but rather a cute special needy class of virtuous go-getters.

As an immigrant, I don’t like it. We’re approximately as nice and as lousy as anybody else.

[nuclearnice3]

They are just details. Let them echo around in your head as you like.

Maybe she's from a conservative part of the world that doesn't have too many woman turning out as doctors. Maybe supporting her family of immigrants, who might not have a ton of money and are dealing with some of the hard things that being new in a strange country brings. Maybe in the deep background you can sense an unhappy reason they left Turkey in the first place. And all this taking place on a holiday eve when she and your narrator would rather be home with a hot tea and a book. She's a fighter, up against long odds, having overcome some adversity to get here. I don't mind a short wait.

Or maybe something totally different.

[someguydave]

It seems like you are a big fan of judging people on the basis of superficial appearances.

[short_throw]

It seems you're a big fan of judging people on superficial details of their internet comments.

The point was pretty clear to me...that there's a person and a family on the losing end of all this. Giving the owners of a store a backstory is humanizing, OP gave as much detail as he knew which wasn't much and that's fine. It's a shame we're all so tense about cultural details that people get attacked for trying to say something nice.

[wand3r]

Not op. I frequently do, all the time. You seem to indicate this is a bad thing. Maybe I misunderstood but its just data. As long as you don't draw huge conclusions with no room to adjust, then in my book its basically par for the course. We reason from heuristics, its difficult to analyze every possible person from first principles, especially in a casual interaction...

[z9znz]

This has nothing to do with the hijab. This is a matter of mixing perspectives.

All of the descriptions of the situation are rather mundane and bland. Only two extra details stand out: "Upper East Side of Manhattan (think pooches inside Gucci bags)" and "in a Hijab and was studying medicine and was helping her parents who immigrated from Turkey".

A significant percentage of "regular" stores in big cities are owned or at least managed and operated by immigrants from very different backgrounds.

These details being present in the brief story seem to have some significance, so my question was, "Why is this significant?"

This is not a judgement on the people running the store or of people in hijabs. It's a question for the poster about why those details were significant.

Maybe it was just the ramblings of an old person (which I can say as I'm an old person). But it is still fair to ask for clarification.

[8n4vidtmkvmk]

my coworker is from turkey. wears a hijab. or did until very recently, interestingly enough. nice woman. very smart. fiesty.

[z9znz]

In a brief recall such as the parent post, certain details would seem either superfluous or meaningful if they don't appear to relate to the topic.

If you mentioned that the guy at the counter of the CVS was wearing a baseball cap, we would wonder why that was a significant detail, or maybe "what team was on the cap".

Saying someone had a hijab is clearly leading with some meaning, but the post didn't go into that detail. I can only guess that it implied something related to Muslims; but I don't even know. They didn't expand on that. So we are left to wonder WHY they mentioned it.

[balls187]

My interpretation was simply painting the picture of who helped him, and not commentary about muslim beliefs.

As another commenter said—humanizing the part of the locked deodorant, and that they did not mind because at the end of the day “we’re all in this together.”

[cpursley]

It sounds like somberi is bringing home the point that they went really far out of their way to a very different culture to work hard and make a way for themselves and try to beat the odds? Isn't that the very idea of America?

[z9znz]

You are filling in so many details that are not there. But whether that is correct or not is not the point.

The point is, why mention it? Should we be surprised, or should we be impressed that an immigrant Muslim family was involved? I just don't know what the OP wants me to feel. It's touchy, but it is ambiguous.

Is that good? Is that bad? Is it stereotypical? Is it challenging expectations?

[mattkrause]

I think the point is that there’s a human on the other side too, not faceless corporation.

Rhetorically, the story works just as well if it’s a scary-looking guy in a biker jacket, helping his sister open a ballet studio, or someone clad head-to-toe in Rangers’ gear.

[z9znz]

> scary-looking guy in a biker jacket, helping his sister open a ballet studio

I think this illustrates the possible unspoken angle of the post. Is the post trying to show a surprising contrast? And if so, should I be surprised to see anyone, hijab or not, working in a family pharmacy store while also working on their MD?

With your example, a scary-looking guy in a biker jacket evokes a certain feeling (fear, worry, etc.), but then we find out that he's just a good guy helping his sister do something that's very unlike his nature - or the nature we would assume a "scary-looking" guy in a biker jacket would be about.

By this example, I would take it to mean that your interpretation is that a girl in a hijab is a scary person to worry about, but in reality she's just a good, smart, hard-working girl helping her family.

This is why I raised the initial question. These couple of extra specific details lead somewhere. I wanted to know where, because the perspective was not provided. The reader was left to make their own assumptions or draw conclusions. Based on your example, we see one conclusion: fear of people in hijabs, but that such fear is not appropriate.

I take the perspective that the hijab doesn't represent a special person nor a person to fear any more than a guy with a baseball cap on his head sideways means something other than "he likes to wear a cap in a way that doesn't block the light from his eyes".

[mattkrause]

Nope. At least for me, the details are meant to sketch striking human characters that you want to support, whether they are plucky (children of) immigrants, surprising family men, or hometown characters [0]. The rhetorical contrast is not a hijab-less woman, jacket-less man, or Dallas Cowboys fan.

Instead, consider this over-the-top example: "Augustus P. Moneybags, who owns 51% of the parent company Amalgamated Holdings, said deodorant theft reduced earnings per share from $1.20 to $1.19 this year. Although the company still turned record profits, he vowed to crack down on it. Specific plans were not available at press time, as Mr. Moneybags had left on his yacht." Here, I can imagine thinking "Meh, who cares? Maybe people need deodorant more tan this guy needs money."

[0] You didn't mention Rangers guy, but if it wasn't clear from context, the NY Rangers are a local hockey team. Nothing scary about them, except perhaps their recent mediocrity.

[mensetmanusman]

It’s a very American story, because American is the most diverse country.

[dkdbejwi383]

The most diverse country? Not even in the top 50, nor the most diverse in the Americas.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-raci...

[vanilla_nut]

Perhaps the commenter means diversity of background and experience, rather than skin color?

[dkdbejwi383]

I'm not sure how you even quantify those. Is there a standard measure for "background" that can be used?

[alar44]

It's normal for humans to describe things. Get out more.

[xwdv]

It shows that she’s an outsider, and it foreshadows the kind of doctor that she will eventually be.

[z9znz]

Seriously?

Perhaps I really am missing something obvious.

What kind of doctor will she be?

[oaktrout]

Well, she was unlocking small pigeon holes so that they could read the labels (reveal the mystery inside), clearly she will do gastroenterology or gynecology.

[xwdv]

Do we really have to explain? She is patient because she is willing to unlock multiple deodorants for a customer until they find one they are satisfied with, she’s a hard worker who puts others needs above her own. Her family relies on the store for income and she is working there even when she should just be focusing on school. Because of rampant theft, the family cannot afford to lose inventory the way other stores can.

Finally, the adherence to the hijab shows that she knows her place in the world. She is here to serve, not chase her own self interests and hedonism. Hence why she will be a good doctor in the service of others.

Where did you develop your reading comprehension skills?

[z9znz]

> she knows her place in the world. She is here to serve,

I know it's sort of an unspoken NoNo on HN, but given your bold comment I had to look (I thought maybe you were using confrontational comedy). But your bio: "Ethically challenged software engineer working for a major tech company you know. Used to have close to 1000 karma, got destroyed over time by hackernews cancel culture and a change in downvote algorithms. But now that the algorithm has been changed back to classic style, I'm rising up again."

There's no point arguing with you. I want so much to tear apart your lunacy, but it would do nothing here (and worse, it wouldn't change what you apparently have going on in your mind).

I will admit though, I never realized that a woman without a hijab would "chase her own self interests and hedonism".

But out of curiosity, assuming women with hijabs don't have self interests or hedonistic tendencies, what sort of clothing would a man wear if he wanted to demonstrate that he also was not self focused or hedonistic? (I ask because I want to be sure I'm never caught wearing such garb.)

[schrectacular]

I think GP was looking for "pediatrician" or "oncologist".

[z9znz]

You either have phenomenal comedic deadpan skill, or you didn't notice the most interesting parts of the parent's comment.

[adventured]

CVS doesn't lease out or franchise operating rights to their stores in the US. They own and operate all of them exclusively. They operate similarly to Walgreens in that respect.

[teg4n_]

lmao so the parent post just made up their story? on the internet no less!?

[adventured]

I'd assume there was a miscommunication with the person that was working at the CVS store. She may have been talking about another store that her parents have the operating rights to or such.

[taolegal]

Not sure what you're trying to get across. Am I supposed to think that locked shelves is normal or ok, should we minimize yet another needlessly bizarre and inconvenient impediment in ordinary life? Because of some romantic anecdote about a second-generation model minority?

[55555]

You sound like a really nice person but I agree with the sibling commenters and I also wonder if your understanding of Turkey is accurate and balanced. https://www.academia.edu/49496498/Turkish_Women_in_the_Profe...