One of the unexpected things about playing golf is that you get paired with a very diverse group of players (it’s far from the moneyed elite on the public courses that I play) and I’ve played with some very interesting people from all walks of life.

Not in this case, though - while the older gentleman we were playing with was a good enough golfer, he had a generally sour attitude - though not enough to spoil our round. The real issue came about rather late in the day when we passed by a house adjoining the course with a gathering and barbecue in their backyard. Our playing partner muttered something about “those people” and how they should “go back home” to where they came from.

Purely coincidentally we had just been talking about my job as the online developer at the local newspaper and the challenges we’re facing as we transition from print to web. I took his cue and segued into mentioning how difficult it was to moderate our comments section. I pointed out that any time an article is published that includes an individual with a Hispanic surname that the racists and ignorami would come out of the woodwork to complain about how our country is being ‘stolen’ from us by ‘them.’

At which point our playing partner steps away to the tee to hit his drive and my buddy leans in to quietly ask “Do you realize that you just called that guy a racist to his face?” to which I responded “…and?”

Pleasantly, the gentleman kept rather quiet for the rest of the round :-)