This happened...probably back in late 2012. It is NOT the dumbest question I've ever been asked. It IS the most insensitive question I've ever been asked.
Couple (early retirement age) walks up and asks me some normal questions about a tourist attraction several hundred miles away. I tell him where it is, that it's on a reservation and requires such-and-such entry fee, etc. He's about to leave when suddenly he gets this look on his face like he's just thought of the funniest thing to say. Of course with as long as I've worked in customer service I was just...uh...quivering in anticipation. We'll go with that.
"So, do you guys ever get attacked by indians?"

I managed a strangled "Uh, no...sir...", completely failed a sarcastic check of the calendar ("wait, did I go back in time to when this lodge was built? Because a few minutes ago it was 2012!"), and he left giggling at his own racism and ignorance.
Later I told my then-coworker, who is native, about him and said "I kind of wish you'd been here so you could tell him exactly how stupid he was." I mean, seriously?
Couple (early retirement age) walks up and asks me some normal questions about a tourist attraction several hundred miles away. I tell him where it is, that it's on a reservation and requires such-and-such entry fee, etc. He's about to leave when suddenly he gets this look on his face like he's just thought of the funniest thing to say. Of course with as long as I've worked in customer service I was just...uh...quivering in anticipation. We'll go with that.
"So, do you guys ever get attacked by indians?"

I managed a strangled "Uh, no...sir...", completely failed a sarcastic check of the calendar ("wait, did I go back in time to when this lodge was built? Because a few minutes ago it was 2012!"), and he left giggling at his own racism and ignorance.
Later I told my then-coworker, who is native, about him and said "I kind of wish you'd been here so you could tell him exactly how stupid he was." I mean, seriously?
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