Racism at Target

Two weird incidents at Target today:

1. An older man was pacing with apparent frustration, and as I tried to navigate around his frantic steps he said, "Excuse me, do you know where they hide the sporting coats?"

"Um… I don't, I'm sorry," I said. Truthfully, I'm not even sure what he meant by a sporting coat. And by my best guess, they don't carry that sort of clothing at Target. That or they "hide" them really, really well.

2. On my way out of the store, I was stuck behind a middle-aged white woman who was moving too slowly with her cart. I resigned myself to being patient and following behind, but a Latina woman and her kid decided to bolt ahead of her, which startled the white woman and prompted her to stop her cart. "Niggers," she said.

She said it aloud, not as a shout, but not under her breath either. I couldn't tell for certain whether the mother and daughter made out the racial epithet, but they definitely heard her anger and each gave her a dismissive look before continuing ahead. 

As for me, I had to stop myself from cracking a smile. Don't get me wrong, in no way do I think using the N-word is funny, but the people she was angry at didn't even look black. Being a racist is ignorant, but this somehow managed to be ignorant. Does she even know when this word is supposed to be used (overlooking the fact that it really should never be used)? 

It's gotta suck to have that much hate in your heart.