sexist/racist/Homophobic customers

[AFpheonix]

Had a gentleman tonight that wanted to only speak to a "male pharmacy worker". Well, the overnight pharmacist tonight is male, and he's also one of the most profoundly rude people I know, so I happily transferred him. It wasn't even a peepee related question. And naturally, the overnight pharmacist refused to help him and told him to call his doctor if he wanted anything.

[Mark Healey]

Once, I was hearding a drunk out of the bookstore and repeating the mantra "You need to go home and sober up". I finally got him out the door and he gets almost nose to nose with me and says "I'm just as jewish as you are." and wanders down the street.

Another time I tell a bum that he can't sit in front of the store and panhandle. He gathers his shit, yells "You jewish fat fag!", pulls a plant out of a concrete plater and throws it at me. Of, course being drunk he misses by a mile. The then runs away and I give chase. When I reach the end of the block I realize I probably shouldn't leave the till unattended to catch this guy and give up.

I'm a fucking bookseller!! I should be wearing a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe and discussing books with interresting people. Not tossing drunks and humping heavy boxes.

Back to topic.

Of course whenever I won't give someone the discount they are entitled to or pay what they think the books they are selling are worth I'm called a cheap jew.

1) I'm not gay but the neighborhood I'm in is considered the "gay" neighborhood.

2) OK, the fat crack is fair.

3) I'm not jewish. Well, probably not. One grandparent from each side was dead before I was born and I only knew one great grandparent. So there might be some jews back there.

I have dark somewhat curly hair. I also have pretty thick body hair so I don't look as pasty as I really am. Because of this I'm frequently mistaken for Indian, Portugese and everything in between (geographically), even by members of those groups, and yes, that includes jews.

Anyway I'm thinking if I receive the amount of shit that I do, how much do actual jews get.

[Rapscallion]

Anyway I'm thinking if I receive the amount of shit that I do, how much do actual jews get.

Apologies from Mel Gibson?

*shudder*

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"I'm a fucking bookseller!! I should be wearing a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe and discussing books with interresting people. Not tossing drunks and humping heavy boxes."

[LostMyMind]

3) I'm not jewish. Well, probably not. One grandparent from each side was dead before I was born and I only knew one great grandparent. So there might be some jews back there.

While not jewish myself, I do believe the jewish faith states your mother has to be jewish for you to be born "jewish" or you've gone through with the "conversion".
But other than that

[Jester]

Anyway I'm thinking if I receive the amount of shit that I do, how much do actual jews get.

A lot. But we get it wholesale.

Seriously, I am often mistaken for Italian, and once I was mistaken for Mexican. In Mexico. By a Mexican! The funny part is, I speak only a smattering of Spanish.

Back to the original question, I don't consider myself Jewish per se. To me Judaism is a religion, and I don't personally subscribe to their particular teachings. As I often say, I am descended from Jews, was raised by two atheists, and am basically a pagan. But, despite what I think, to the rest of the world I am still Jewish. (This disparity is one reason that, when asked "Are you Jewish?" I almost invariably say "Occasionally.") And, to people who are racist, bigoted, ignorant, or ant-Semitic, that means I get the typical anti-Jewish crap. Since the majority of it is coming from ignorant people, I tend to ignore it. Or, if I am in a particularly evil mood, if someone makes an anti-Jewish crack and doesn't know my heritage, I will come back with a smartass comment, like "Yeah, damn Jews. That's why I hate family reunions." Or "Yeah, I agree. By the way, hi. I'm Aaron Rosenberg." [not my real name] One one or two occasions, when people have made anti-black cracks, I have found an excuse to break out my niece's picture. She is gorgeous. And half-black. That tends to shut them up.

Maybe one of the funniest things I ever heard was this comedienne at the Tempe Improv. I quote: "I'm half black and half Jewish. I don't know whether to steal shit or get it wholesale."

Perhaps my greatest moment in this vein was when my good friend was telling me a Jewish joke. We both are equal opportunity assholes, and make fun of EVERYONE, so this was not a big deal. He asked me, "What's the best part about Jewish jokes?" I turned to him, not knowing what the punchline would be, and blurted out "They're free." He stopped...and then lost it, laughing his ass off. He couldn't remember the actual punchline, and to this day is not sure what it was. My timing was, to be completely immodest, absolutely perfect.

[bean]

I can't even begin to count the number of people I got on the phone at my last call center gig who would blurt out "oh shit, I got a man", "go ask one of the women there about the sizing of this", etc.

So yeah, I'm openly gay and don't fit any of the stereotypes. I know Hondas like the back of my hand and do most of my own work on my Civic... I don't know how to dress at all (shorts and a t-shirt, with sandals, always). My idea of interior design is throwing some posters on the wall, I listen to mainly heavy metal, etc. In every form of CS I've done, I've always run into somebody that pulls the "party animal or queers" type line, except I don't even think twice about saying something like "so what's your phone number then? Feel like catching a movie?". Usually leaves them with a look on their face.

I'm also a devout Athiest. And get highly annoyed when somebody says "God bless you" or something along those lines to me.

I also have a friend that's female - a very pretty, fairly short female. She and I both know tons about cars, though she's basically restored a couple of cars from the frame up, whereas I'm usually just bolting whatever's fallen off my high mileage car back onto the car (I paid $200 for my civic, it has a little over 205k on it.. didn't run when I got it, fixed it up myself )

[BiscuitMunroe]

I work a phone job and am openly lesbian. What I've always found very fun is this: I work for a bank, I'm talking about very private areas of peoples lives. When they trust me enough to come out to me I always return the courtesy. what I've found especially funny is that the women I come out to (after they've came out to be) will often just flat out ignore what I've told them, while the men tend get excited and I often get either "oh you ARE the perfect personal banker for me" or "now what are the chances of THAT!" (to which I usually reply "about one in a hundred and thirty two" (I'm the only out member of our line of business))

I've never had a customer come across as openly homophobic but I did have a co-worker who had a client pitching a fit that we were involved with the gay pride parades. I kind of wish i'd gotten that call.

[Imogene]

I don't remember most of the conversation, but we got into a discussion about Transformers, and I told this kid that I remember the original series and how great it was. When he said he was born in '85, I told him that's when I graduated high school.

One of my greatest finds at Chesterfield was a DVD of Rainbow Brite, of all things! I snatched it up immediately, and took it to hold behind the counter. One of my all time favorite part timers saw me put it away and asked, "What was that?"
M: "Rainbow Brite...?"
"What's Rainbow Brite?"
M: *hit the floor* "You're kidding, right?"
"No."
M: "It was only one of the best shows of the 80's... well, it was, through nostalgia, anyway..."

That's definitely not as bad as my classmate in Game Design (I repeat, I am in school for video games).
One day, we were talking about putting cheat codes into our game. I suggested to the programmer (the only programmer in our group, sadly) that we needed to put in a reference to the Konami Code.
I swear to you, the next words out of his mouth were, "What's the Konami Code?"
M: "Out, foul demon who knows not the glory of 100 lives!"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

While I haven't had any customers treat me in a crappy way because they assumed something about my racial makeup, I have had employees do it (most of my SC didnt' really need an excuse to treat someone poorly) In Italy, I got some nasty treatment because they assumed I was Rromany, or at least, one of THEIR Rromany. In Texas, I got it because they thought I was Hispanic (in a couple cases) or Native (in a couple more).

I was tempted to get a Tshirt that said, "It's okay, I'm Jewish." (I'm not, but hey, I've been asked if I am enough I figure why not.)

I have told I look like/mistaken for, in no particular order:
Jewish
Spanish
Mexican
Mullatto
Native American
Greek
Italian (good reason for that one)
Rromany (good reason for that one, too.)

And you should see my husband. Talk about someone who looks like he's got some sugar in the mix. Frankly, I'm a little suprised at the number of times I get asked what ethnicity I am by curious people, because really, I don't look all that unusual. But I guess it's because I live in South Carolina, and I guess I look a little different than the folks here. I just tell them "Dude, half the girls in New York City look like me, okay?"

[Jester]

So yeah, I'm openly gay and don't fit any of the stereotypes. I know Hondas like the back of my hand and do most of my own work on my Civic... I don't know how to dress at all (shorts and a t-shirt, with sandals, always). My idea of interior design is throwing some posters on the wall, I listen to mainly heavy metal, etc.

I also have a friend that's female - a very pretty, fairly short female. )

That's funny to me, because I somewhat your opposite. I am a straight dude, living in a very gay-friendly town, and while I AM a sports nut, I don't know much about my truck (I can change the tires, the oil, and my mind, and that is about it), and while I usually dress like a beach bum, when I do clean up, I dress well, and can cook like a demon...so of course, some people think I am gay. (Interestingly, I have never gotten the "Are you gay?" question when watching football in a sports bar...I guess I get too intense and obnoxious for them to think that of me, for whatever reason.) Just more proof that people don't know crap!

As for the female friend that is very pretty, fairly short....that is my type. Figures. All the women that I meet down here are either gay, taken, psychotic, or tourists. Or a combination thereof. Tourist towns: great place to get laid, lousy place to find a relationship.

...while the men tend get excited and I often get either "oh you ARE the perfect personal banker for me" or "now what are the chances of THAT!" (to which I usually reply "about one in a hundred and thirty two" (I'm the only out member of our line of business))

A bit off topic, but thought this was funny....when I am performing magic, and I get the spectator's card right, many times they will say "what are the odds of that?" To which I reply the obvious: "Oh, about 1 in 52."

That's definitely not as bad as my classmate in Game Design (I repeat, I am in school for video games).

Can I hate you now, or is there a waiting list for that?

[amarisse]

I get a lot of people not realizing i'm Italian because thanks to my little goth genes me and sunlght dont mix often so i'm about as white as a sheet of paper. Its caused some very very odd interactions because for some reason peopel who are Italian wont beleive i am just because i dont look how they expect.

[Dreamstalker]

That's awesome! Go techie girls! I always get a good laugh out of seeing the guys' faces at school when I tell them I'm into gaming and computers.

That reminds me...I should see if the local game store is hiring this fall

I recently applied for a tech position at a local computer store. Have heard nothing yet (been about 2 weeks). Methinks they don't quite know what to do with a girl tech...

[Dragon_Dreamer]

I'm a fucking bookseller!! I should be wearing a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe and discussing books with interresting people. Not tossing drunks and humping heavy boxes.

Can I steal this for my sig if no one else has?

[CrazedClerk]

My last name is European in origin, but it bears a resemblance to a common Spanish/Mexican surname.

I get severely irritated when people think I'm Mexican. I don't look latino at all. I have white skin and red hair.