Call us racist, I dares ya

[WishfulSpirit]

Ok, so far nobody has tried to pull the race card at my hotel, but I'm kind of hoping someone tries right around shift change. While I and the GM are so white we'd be transparent if we were any lighter, I'm frequently heard conversing in Spanish. My evening coworker is black, my AGM looks Arab (his last name is common among Latinos but he looks like he should be wearing a turban and driving a cab in a bad 80s movie), our executive housekeeper is from Mexico, and we have several housekeepers of various ethnic backgrounds.

It would go down like this:

SC: You're racist
Me (Looking around at us, in all our cultural rainbow glory): Against what, exactly?
SC:

[raudf]

That was the repair center in a nutshell. Most of us were white, but we did have an j, an Iraqi and E, of African-American decent. J was our in shop electronics and E was in on certain days of the week.

I was dealing with a person of mixed descent, probably African American/White, but that's only important to the story. I'd just said the hated SC "N" word.. You know, "NO," to them and they decided to try the race card, since I'm spotted white (freckles... I'm actually more Native American than Scot-Irish, but guess who won the genetics lotto in me). Cue J and E walking through the double doors behind me and asking if something was wrong! The customer couldn't back peddle and back out of the door fast enough!

What was the customer getting the no for? Desk fan parts.. we never carried desk fan parts, no matter what color your skin is!

[Golden Phoenix]

I used to love when customers would call the PowerCorp callcentre and accuse us of being racist.

A lot of our staff were students, so you had just about every mix, "ethnic" names for milky white people. "british" names belonging to blacks, asians, and every other colour. Every religion practiced by every race. Non-British accents in every colour.

It was amazing how they could tell what race/religion they were talking to via the phone.

My favourite person to hand them off to if they demanded a manager was the black muslim called Manuel. He had a russian accent. He loved taking on the racism card. (not his real name btw, but equivalent)

[Seanette]

There's an interesting combo. Sounds like he had loads of fun with that one.

[MoonCat]

I did once have a customer on the phone accuse me of demanding prepayment for his ad because of racism. I told him I had no idea what his racial background was. You couldn't tell from his name, his voice, etc. But I remembered his name, and a few years later happened to take another ad from him, this time for a moving sale. Yay, the asshole was moving away! Funny thing, the second time he said nothing about race and happily paid up front.

[wolfie]

Every religion practiced by every race.

Elves worshiping Clangeddon?

Note: In the Forgotten Realms AD&D world, Clangeddon is the DWARVEN god of war.

[dalesys]

Elves worshiping Clangeddon?

Ala Carrot Ironfounderson... Really a Dwarf, just severely challenged in the height, girth and hirsuteness attributes.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Back when I worked at Kinko's, I'd get that every now and then. Someone would ask for free crap (for some reason, a lot of people think Kinko's is a charity), and when I said no, I'd get the "You're racist" foolishness thrown at me. I'd tap my (very ornate, one of a kind) wedding ring, and jab my pen over my shoulder in the direction of computer services. Sitting in computer services was a man who looked almost exactly like Slash, wearing a matching ring.

That never failed to shut them up.

[Mr Hero]

Hey I think you're crazy
'Cause you just met me
And here's your race card
So call me racist maybe

[Totiono]

I used to work in a department store very close to the US-Mexico border. The majority of our customer base was Mexican and spoke very little (if any) English. As for me, let's just say that I was affectionately dubbed "white boy" by many of my co-workers because, well, I was one of the few white, non-Spanish speaking employees there. If a customer needed assistance but didn't speak any English I tried my best to use context clues to figure out what they needed help with. Usually I'd try to get the attention of a Spanish-speaking co-worker and call them over but sometimes it just wasn't possible. Unfortunately on more than a few occasions I was shouted at and then complained about for being "racist" for not speaking the language. I tried my hardest and even picked up quite a bit of the language but still not enough to be proficient.

There was one woman in particular I'll never forget. I was ringing up some customers and speaking to them in English. It should be noted that this was a group of blonde valley girls who likely didn't speak Spanish anyway. After they left I called over the next person in line. It was a lady who then proceeded to tell me how offensive it was that I had spoken in English to customers in front of her and that she'd be notifying corporate of my racist behavior.

My managers knew not to give the complaints any real attention because usually they were followed by demands for huge discounts or store credit. A couple of the more ballsy managers would even tell them off.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I and the GM are so white we'd be transparent if we were any lighter

Hah. I could be employed as a human white balance for TV cameras. Though that's as much because I don't go outside much* than it is because of my heritage.

* CURSÉD DAY-STAR! IT BURRRRRRNS!!

[Mr Hero]

Hah. I could be employed as a human white balance for TV cameras. Though that's as much because I don't go outside much* than it is because of my heritage.

* CURSÉD DAY-STAR! IT BURRRRRRNS!!

Well, I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Well, I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream.

You were in A/V Club, the Glee Club, and even the Chess Team?

[raudf]

Though that's as much because I don't go outside much* than it is because of my heritage.

* CURSÉD DAY-STAR! IT BURRRRRRNS!!

Celtic Suntan?

[notalwaysright]

I only remember one time someone said stuff like that at my work... It was aimed at Old Manager, who had just told this woman she couldn't use more than one of each coupon. This person had photo copied one coupon about twenty times. It says specifically "no reproductions." Anyway, she tries to say Old Manager is racist, and is very loud. After she gave up and left, onlookers basically said "racist against what?" Since everyone involved looked very white, and no one had any perceptible accents, either. It would be like if I started to yell at someone because I'm part Norwegian. You hate Vikings!