Racism directed at me!

[draftermatt]

That's funny (well Kinda). I prefer working with female real estate agents, bankers, mortgage professionals, etc.

[infavorofnaturalselection]

PLEASE EDIT QUOTES

to contrast we have the Japanese who out of 9 clients, 8 were really polite right off the bat and stayed that way, and the other one was a bit harsh and snippy at first, but then apologized when his furniture was restored and was very happy.

As a general rule the Japanese culture is very polite. The language doesn't have many curse words or insults. The language is very formal as well with a number of terms used to denote familiarity with people including random strangers.

The issue is that certain groups when they come to the states figure out American culture, customs so they aren't offended by certain things. For instance in Japanese and other cultures upon entering the house you remove you shoes at the doorway. But in America we largely don't do that and a Japanese immigrant wouldn't see that behavior as a calcuated insult just a cultural differance.

Arabs on the other hand comprise a group who would see it as a calcuated insult. A western woman talking to them is an insult to them hence their rude behavior.

[SuperB]

It's true, haggling is a cultural thing. We've had to deal with that quite a bit. One snowstorm, an Asian man wanted two for one on his tire chain installations. The store was slammed and there was no way he was getting any type of discount. My brother in law finally gave up arguing the fact with him and said, "fine" and quoted him a price. The price he quoted was more than the two installations together. The guy fell for it and said, "ok". As my brother in law started on the install, the guy did the math in his head and said, "wait, wait! do separately!"
My husband will haggle with them if he isn't rushed but he haggles up, completely annoying them and he does it deadpan so it's more frustrating for them.

With Middle Eastern men, the cultural thing is difficult to deal with at times. I have worked for a few and had no issues or problems with one exception. The guy always had his hand on my ass and it was a desk job at a motel so his wife and kids were in the apartment just beyond the wall. I couldn't wait to get away from him.
I hate to make blanket observations about any race, religion, etc but when you see it all the time it's hard not to. I know that out of this environment these things would appear differently.

[Andara Bledin]

I used to chat and do the the IM thing all the time, and I made no mystery of the fact that I am female. I used to get a lot of random contacts from all over the world.

Any time it was someone from Pakistan or Egypt I was guaranteed within the first 5 messages to get a question about my underwear or something about sex.

Except for one guy from Egypt who was totally normal for about a month, and then started getting all "we will meet and you will fall in love with me and run off to my home even though you are married." I stopped talking to that one.

Not one random contact from the middle east didn't try to talk sex. Ever. None of the ones from the rest of the world were so blatant and single-minded.

^-.-^

[Pezzle]

Just figure out how to say "You're an Untouchable" in whatever language(Hindi, I think) and point. One of the best ways to deal with assholes of any race or whatever is to learn enough to turn it around.

Pretty much. i was told by the social problems professor at school that the majority here is named Patel because of that caste system.

I'm not sure.

Trust me I've dealt with asshats of every rainbowlicious color, but I'm merely pointing out that these guys have never been nice to me, nor have they ever beleived my knowledge of electronic devices despite the fact that I'm a technician.

[AFpheonix]

Wierd. The only middle eastern problem customer that I have isn't a problem because of their race, it's just because he has a small narcotic addiction and is a total spaz.
That, and they get 12 refills on stuff for his mom and want it same day. >.<
And the only other one I can think of that was a problem was again not because of his race, but because he's coming off of heroin and ran out of his suboxone, and totally flipped out, to the point of hyperventilating.

I have one Vietnamese customer who's a pain, but again, it's not due to race, it's due to her being a dentist and thinking she's better than us.

My biggest pains in the ass are all white. Well, and one black guy who comes across as really condescending, but oh well, I can deal with that.

[blas]

Wow I really need to move somewhere that is more culturally diverse.....

[slick]

I am East Indian and I can totally understand how most of you feel when treated poorly by my people. I get the same crappy treatment at times (other times they feel I am suppose to give them the "I'm one of you" hook ups).
I know my Dad gets treated poorly because of the way he speaks. He sometimes speaks loud and can't correctly put sentences together (he knows what he wants to say, it just comes out sounded wrong sometimes). He never intends to cause harm to anyone, but it seems that way to some.
But I can't understand how someone, who probably gets crap treatment from westerners, dish out the same crap to other, nice, normal folk.
I have some relatives that were new to this country many years ago. Its a shock for them culturally, but they must adapt. I have lost relationships with some relatives because they behave as though this is a third world country, despite living here for many years. I just don't understand why people come here and expect things to go there way, it truly is annoying.
Just please try and understand that some of us are not that way, and for the ones that are SC's, let them have it

[protege]

Just please try and understand that some of us are not that way, and for the ones that are SC's, let them have it

With that said, let's not judge them all to be like that. I've met rude bastards of all races and colors...yet, I've met some damn great people of those same races and colors. Rudeness and stupidity know no bounds!

[Daphne]

I live near a town called Dearborn in Michigan. Dearborn has the 2nd largest Middle Eastern population in the United States and there is a large generation difference between the young and old. If you get hassled by the older generation of Muslims it is largely due to cultural differences.

There's also a huge differance in the Middle Easterners in Dearborn. Dearborn has a huge Armenian population. Armenia is a Christian country, not a Muslim one. My mother is Armenian and was raised near there.

[Andara Bledin]

I've run into a few Armenian Americans. They've all been really cool people.

(I'm listening to System of a Down right now, actually)

^-.-^

[allniter]

is it an East Indian cultural thing to consider us retail slaves lower than low?

I have never had a transaction with one that did not end up in trying to haggle the price, cop a rebate scam, and berating me because I'm a woman and a technician. not -one- transaction.

It's in their culture to be that way. Never try to haggle when one of them's a taxi driver, they'll always charge you more than what it would cost you if you just paid what's on the meter by trip's end.

I'd love to see an Indian guy demand to speak to the manager and the manager turns out to be an East Indian as well, who knows all about their games. Love to see the fight or the look of defeat in their eyes when they saw him.

[allniter]

DC = Can't you give me a better price.
CW = *raises the price by 10%* Ok, I can sell these for 110%.
DC = That's not a better price!
CW = It's better for me. Now, are you going to buy these or not?

Beautiful Answer!

[aqutalion]

As a general rule the Japanese culture is very polite. The language doesn't have many curse words or insults. The language is very formal as well with a number of terms used to denote familiarity with people including random strangers.

Oh, there's plenty of curses and insults. I have an entire book full of japanese insults , most of which are quite colorful and fun to yell at drivers who cut you off. You just never hear them because they're always supposed to be so dang polite.

[Ghostlightkeeper]

I've worked with acts from all over the world and I have to say that of all the nationalities that I've worked with Israelis have generally been the most difficult to work with. On one occasion I was literally shoved aside by an Israeli who thought he could do my job better than I could. At the time I was a lowly light op but I told the individual that he needed to get his hands off of my lighting console and the theatre manager backed me up. It didn't stop this guy from making a huge stink about it and tried to get us in trouble with the touring company he worked for.

Over all the Asians have been the best to work with but I had one odd experience. A few years ago I had a Japanese act come into the theatre that I run and only two of the performers could speak English. One of them was the group leader who was responsible for communicating to the technicians what the group wanted. Unfortunately the leader's English wasn't that good and we had two days of rehearsal with them before their show.

Before I go on I should explain that I was 25 years old at the time and not only was I in charge of the venue but I was also running lights for the show. One of my good friends who was in his early forties was running sound.

During the rehearsal process the group leader sat in the tech booth with us telling us what he wanted and for the better part of a day and a half. He tried to address all of his requests to my friend the sound tech. For anything lighting or theatre related the sound tech would just point to me and try to tell the leader guy that he needed to talk to me. The guy would then come and talk to me but he would be going really slowly and he would repeat himself three or four times which he hadn't been doing with the sound tech. The second day things started to get better and by the time we were done he was treating me like an adult and a professional.

It was just odd because it had been years since anybody had gone on treating me like I didn't know what I was doing for more than five minutes. This guy managed to do it for almost a day and a half. Later on I figured it out. Most Asian cultures are age oriented and leader guy was in his mid fifties. I don't think the guy could believe that a young guy like me was competent to do lighting and I don't think he really believed that I was in charge over someone who was clearly older. Wasn't really sucky just a cultural misunderstanding.