Race card

[Estil]

The co-worker looked slightly shocked and asked, "That's your sister?!! But, you're white!"

There is something called adoption.

[PepperElf]

I've seen this happen in the Navy too. Sometimes it's valid, sometimes it's not... sometimes it happens because the other person thinks you're being racist (even tho you're not).

1) Race Card Failure

I'll call him "R". R actually said "You guys are just being mean to me because I'm <race>." I think he really believed it. What he chose to not see was that one of the other coworkers was the same race and everyone got along well with him.

In the case of R... we simply didn't like him much. It had nothing to do with his race and everything to do with his personality.

I didn't actually dislike him but... he pissed me off quite a lot. Usually when he was blaming my work for his own problems. (but i'll save the story on that for another thread).

2) When it really is racism.
Sometimes it really is.

example... there was a Command Master Chief on one of the other ships who was pretty much against all other races, and all other religions. if you were of a different race, any of your requests that had to go through him were not handled properly. if he found out your religion was one he didn't approve of... same thing.

supposedly when he went on to another command he got in trouble for it finally.

3) Sometimes it's reactionary.
had a gal on my last ship that i pretty much couldn't stand. i felt she was lazy, an EW, and had attitude that she hadnt actually earned.

but when she and i had a verbal argument once, other people felt they had to jump in and "defend" her from me... as if i was being racist towards her.

in reality, i didn't give a rat's ass about her race. i just couldn't stand her for how she acted and her personality. Therefore i'm sure they would have pulled the race card.. when in fact they were the ones who were actually being racist.

[ShadowTiger]

I'm always as friendly as possible to people, but it is inevitable, I suppose. I got the race card for some reason when I tried to tell her we didn't have the key blank needed despite that -she- thought it was a common key. Technically, it was a common key. It just wasn't a common variation of said key.

She said that I just didn't want to get all <of her people> to be technologically advanced or something like that.

So I countered with the fact that because my people had been through the holocaust, it was okay to persecute me one more time because nobody would notice that you can talk to me in that tone of voice. I tilted my head and stared before recommending the locksmith nearby. She walked away defeated.

[Shalom]

I'm always as friendly as possible to people, but it is inevitable, I suppose. I got the race card for some reason when I tried to tell her we didn't have the key blank needed despite that -she- thought it was a common key. Technically, it was a common key. It just wasn't a common variation of said key.

Now you've piqued my curiosity. I can interpret your last sentence in several ways: 1, she came in with a 7-pin key and you only had 5- and 6-pin blanks; 2, it was a common manufacturer's key, but in some oddball keyway like a Corbin/Russwin/Emhart sectional or Schlage numbered keyway (I don't consider Lockwood/Chantrell or Yale sectionals to be "common", at least not anymore), or possibly a Medeco restricted keyway; or 3, some kind of blank that is personalized to the particular store that issued it, something like an Assa Twin or Schlage Primus with the side cuts. (Not that these area common either.) I'm not sure how else you'd have a variation of a common key that wouldn't make it, technically, a different key. Can you tell me what blank it was?

(in addition to my pharmacist's licenses, I also hold a valid locksmith's license. I haven't done that for a living since 1993, though, so there are probably new innovations that I'm unaware of.)

She said that I just didn't want to get all <of her people> to be technologically advanced or something like that.

That's kind of ridiculous. I remember one morning telling a customer in an Aid of Rite in northern Manhattan, who happened to be a different race than I am, that her refill wouldn't be ready for about 2 hours. This was because I was working alone in the pharmacy, no techs or cashiers present nor expected until 2 in the afternoon, and there were 18 customers' worth of prescriptions ahead of hers. Now this refill was for milk of magnesia, which is an over the counter item, and if she was in such an all-fired rush she could have gone to the damn shelf and paid $2.79 for it, but she wanted Medicaid to pay for it. I explained the reasons for the delay, that there were 18 people ahead of her and it was first come first serve unless there was an emergency, but she didn't want to hear it. Finally she says, "You're just telling me that because you don't like my color."

God I was mad. I told her, "First of all, where my profession is concerned I'm colorblind. I treat everyone the same way regardless of their color. And in the second place, 17 of the 18 people ahead of you are the same color as you are!"

She says "Well you're full of shit." Wonderfully intelligent rebuttal, that.

Now sometimes there's something that you desperately want to say, but you can't, and this is one of those. What I wanted to say was, "I'm full of shit? Who's the one getting a prescription for milk of magnesia here?"

But I wanted to keep my job, not to mention my head attached to my shoulders, so I didn't say it, just kept repeating, "Come back at <time> and it will be ready for you."

I mean seriously. Even if a pharmacist was prejudiced against her race, which I'm not, everyone in that neighborhood is the same race as her, so why would he be discriminating against her personally? It's not logical. She just pulled that card out so she could get her damn milk of magnesia ahead of everyone else.

So I countered with the fact that because my people had been through the holocaust, it was okay to persecute me one more time because nobody would notice that you can talk to me in that tone of voice. I tilted my head and stared before recommending the locksmith nearby. She walked away defeated.

I don't like using that particular argument, because then you start getting into discussions of whether being exterminated or enslaved was worse, and I don't need that kind of headache. Besides, the word holocaust has been irreparably cheapened recently by the fanatical imbeciles at PETA using that term to describe the slaughter of freaking chickens, for pete's sake. I'm not sure but what that pisses me off about them more than anything else they've done, and they've done quite a lot to piss me off.

[ShadowTiger]

(in addition to my pharmacist's licenses, I also hold a valid locksmith's license. I haven't done that for a living since 1993, though, so there are probably new innovations that I'm unaware of.)

I'm actually rather envious. Becoming a locksmith might be the only thing I'm actually interested in doing at the moment. D:

I think it was a Chicago key. I made an attempt at mimicking the physical grooves via crude ASCII art, but my memory of it wasn't quite up to par. The variation in the key consisted of an interesting vertical inversion of one of the grooves in the lower area of the shaft, assuming you were staring from the point of the key to the head of the key such that it resembled a simple " | " to you. The blank was otherwise identical. It was just that tiny variation that made it incompatible with her lock.

[HYHYBT]

Why would you need a prescription for Milk Of Magnesia?