"White People Are Nuts"

Saturday my friend Kelsey and I found a woman’s purse in the parking lot at Kroger. Being decent people, we decided to try to get it back to its owner. I opened the wallet to find the owner’s name and address, while Kelsey got the cell phone out and started trying to find a good number to call.
As we did this, a middle-aged black woman pulled her car up next to us.
“What are you doing with a woman’s purse?” she said, angrily.
“It was abandoned in this shopping cart,” I said.
“We’re trying to find information so we can get it back to the owner,” said Kelsey.
The woman eyed us suspiciously.
“Just going through a woman’s wallet, mm mm mm,” she said, shaking her head.
“I would want someone to go through my wallet,” I said, “if it meant I got my wallet back.” I was mad. I felt that I was doing a nice thing, and that this lady who suspected me of being a thief was a stupid bitch. Kelsey dealt with the situation much better:
“Maybe we should just take this into the service desk,” he said.
“You better do that,” said the woman, as though she would call the police if we didn’t.
Kelsey took the purse inside, and I stayed outside with the groceries, while the rude woman drove away.

I thought about how suspicious she had been. I remembered a co-worker, Genesa, and a conversation in which she told me she was afraid of white men.
“Black people are more likely to rob you, sure,” she said, “but that’s all they do. You get your shit took. Big deal. Now a white man, if he pulls a gun on you, you don’t know what kinda weird shit he’s going to do to you. You might end up with your teeth in a maracca and your balls stapled to a tree—it could be anything. White people are nuts.”
I also seem to remember that conversation started with her saying I reminded her of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Someday I hope I can be judged by the content of my character, and not by my the color of my skin/scraggliness of my beard.