Black lady freaks out at Dollar Store

so I go in to the Dollar Store today to pick up some tiny candy canes for my little white tree. I always wanted a white tree and got a small one this year for 12.99.

Anyway, I'm looking at the ornaments and this lady came around the corner to look. I turned and gave her a big smile. Christmas is hard for me this year, like so many of us, but I always try to smile and be cheerful to others. (Unless they are purposely mean or rude then I let them know they are being purposely mean or rude LOL)

Anyway, this lady doesn't smile. I am ready to say "gee, there are slim pickin's here, not much to pick from" but I stop as she is just staring at me and then turns abruptly and walks away.

Next thing I'm checking out, same lady had been ahead of me in line but I hadn't noticed. Tiny little 19 year old cashier, white, chunky, about 4 ft 11 says "hey how ya' doing?" and starts to ring me up. Lady who had just checked out - same one from the ornament aisle, stops at the door, which was close to us and says "Did you just ask her 'how ya' doing?" I look up and smile. Cashier smiles. Lady continues "Excuse me, how come you didn't ask ME how I was doing?" I laughed, thought it was a joke. Cashier laughed and said meekly "Okay, how ya' doing?" Lady says VERY loudly, "No, I wanna know why you asked HER how she was doin' but not me?" She points at me. Okay now I am the center of attention for doing nothing more than buying candy canes. WTH????

I naively still thought this was a joke. Then my head kicks in and I realize the lady is black. Seriously, had NOT noticed before. She's about six foot 2 inches, 250 pounds and her head is covered in corn curls. She is dressed nice, a lot better than me in my old winter hat, beat up coat and second hand sneakers. She yells for the fourth time "Can you tell me why you asked HER how she was doing but you didn't ask ME?" Again, she points at me. I nervously look at the cashier. She says quietly, "I dunno, I guess I just didn't think of it..."

"Oh YEAH! You didn't THINK of it!" the black woman yells. "Well I'll tell you your manager is gonna hear about THIS!" she said. Then she slammed the glass doors like she was going to bust them out and left. She disappeared instantanously, almost vanished into thin air.

I looked at the cashier and said "I thought she was joking." Cashier said "Me too." "You didn't know her, that was for real?" I asked her. "No, I don't know what it was about, she must be stressed for the holidays or something" the cashier said, obviously looking kinda sad and depressed now. I talked to her for a bit, but when I left, I proceeded cautiously in case the woman was lurking waiting for another totally irrational and worthless confrontation because me and the cashier were...white. I'll tell ya' - I was a little scared going to my car in the dark parking lot.

Have NEVER had any racial troubles here in suburbia. We all used to get along fine. While my area is predominantly white, blacks and whites mix here unremarkably.

Life is hard enough without strangers yelling at you. And I didn't like this lady trying to ruin my day but most of all threatening the cashier's job at Christmas for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with racial tensions in this country. It makes me mad.