The other night a family was checking out at my work and I heard the sound of bickering between the mom and the dad, I glanced up to see their young son (probably 7 or 8) standing by a shelf with my little pony plushies on it, and I sort of got the idea. The parents happened to glance in my direction, and make eye contact, so I smiled (in my polite employee way) and asked what was wrong. The Dad shook his head and said his son wanted a little pony doll. His tone bothered me from the start, and when I glanced at the mother I could tell she was agitated. So I smiled at the father again and said "I don't see anything wrong with it". The dad responded with "We used to take kids like that out in the woods". He probably saw me flare up at the statement, but I contained myself. Then I looked at him again, and said, still managing to keep a polite expression, "Well, I like superheros". To which he responded "Well that's fine, that's cool". So I continued with "But those are typically considered for boys aren't they? A lot of people would say those are a 'boy thing' but I like superheros, and that's not weird, right?" The father didn't respond, and turned away. I then looked to the boy, who was quiet this whole time, and smiled at him now. Then I told him not to worry about it, and you know what?
That little boy got a rainbow dash doll, and I have never been happier with my choice to speak up on someones behalf.
You never know how much an impact just a few words can have, so always speak up for people when you see injustice.
