Are YOU racist?

[JustADude]

That looks just like a compact pickup while an El Camino looks like a car with a pickup bed on the back.

Exactly. It is, by the way, a truck. It was sold on the basis of being a truck for people that want to drive cars. Just like SUVs are sold as mini-van/station-wagons for people that want to own something else.

[Tiberious]

I've told this before, but I've also been called racist (though in more words) over a sign stating that everyone who wants to eat inside at the mexican restaurant (sp?) that used to be a more upscale place¹ has to go outside and in through the 'main' entrance. This is, of course, because of two separate liqour licenses. Keep also in mind that since they know 95-99% of their business comes from bowlers, they DO provide a 'carry-out' window for those that just want something to eat (and no, they WON'T sell you alcohol at this window).


Well, apparently, this ignorant fool from Chicago² decided to read it as applying to either A) him personally, or B) all people of 'color', and either way decided to let me know about it, with a very thinly-veiled accusation of racism. I all but told him what I suspected to be the truth, as I wasn't 100% sure of it at the time, though later I confirmed that it was indeed liquor licenses.



¹ The former classy joint was owned by the same family that runs the attached bowling alley and runs a nearly year-long tournament there.

² I've forgotten his name now, but I named him last time I posted this... never piss off someone who has access to various strategic pieces of information that go further than just full name and hometown... I'll leave you to your imagination as to just what kinds of information it was... be glad I'm not unscrupulous.

[Luna]

Oh lots of times.

The funniest was by a homeless black woman and her 4-6 children she'd have in B&N for hours. She allowed the children to eat or damage hundreds of dollars worth of Godiva chocolates and then would hide the boxes in the store. Then they would harass the cafe baristas for free samples of things all night and shove paying customers out of the way. I finally, after weeks of her doing this - asked her to leave and not come back. She freaked out on me in front of the new books section calling me a racist honkey something or other. I laughed and asked her how could she call me a racist when I'm PuertoRican. She left then.

The absolute best was when I was working for music store hell. The one where I drove 120 mile round trip a day to get to. My assistant manager was black. I had just come into work and was headed to the back when I heard raised voices. I go up front to see a little elderly black lady ripping my assistant manager a new ass. Apparently, she didn't feel she should wait on line to make her purchase (even though she was 2nd on line!) and decided that her reason for being made to wait was that my assistant was a racist.

To that he said, "But I'm blacker than you are!!" I almost pissed myself laughing. He was completely perplexed the entire day and we'd just look at each other and bust out laughing even hours later over that.

Oh! I forgot! I am a racist. Read my War Story. How stupid of me to forget.

[ArenaBoy]

Gotten the racist card plenty of times.

A good story I never told:

One night I was stuck in suites working with W (who happens to be black, this is important). W and I were talking when a car of 2 black guys pull up. They don't have a pass, they call me racist and then they ask W for a favor saying that he's their "brother".
Big mistake. W snapped at the both of them, yelled at them "I AM NOT YOUR BROTHER, YOUR COUSIN, YOUR UNCLE OR WHATEVER!!!! YOU NEED A GODDAMN PASS TO GET IN HERE! NOT THAT HARD!!!! IT'S NOT RACISM FOR RULES BEING IMPLEMENTED AND FOLLOWED!!!!" Along those lines basically. At the end I just stared at him in shock, this conversation ensued.

W: Arena?

Me: Yeah?

W: Promise not to report me to the dept. head?

Me: *laughs* Oh hell no, that just made my night. You have no idea how happy I am right now.

W: Good, because that felt great. *laughs*

Fortunately we never heard anything about it.

[worddork]

I had my boss call me a racist. Now she is whiter than a sheet of paper, and I'm half white half Mexican. I was on the phone with her going over the week's schedule, when two women came up and ask for a book that just came out.
W1= the first woman
W2=her friend
BL=boss lady
Me= yep you guessed it

W1: to you have "He's just not that in to you"?
Me : No Sorry, but you can find it here (gives name of another store, I have lolaylty to our store but it would have taken weeks to get the book for them)
W2: Okay thank you
BL= Did you send them away?
Me= yeah we don't have that book
BL= you can turn people away because of how they look
Me= *stares at phone utterly confused* We do not have the book they were looking for
LB= I don't care if you don't like them, you can not trun people away because of race
Me= *stares at phone again* For the last time. We. Do. Not. Have. The. Book . They. Wanted. I. Can. Not. Sell. Them. A. Book. We. Do. Not. Have. In. Stock. (Yes, I spoke very, very slowly and made every word it's own sentence)
LB= Oh. Okay *hangs up*
Me= head to counter she forgot to tell why she called.

[Andara Bledin]

BL= you can turn people away because of how they look
Me= *stares at phone utterly confused* We do not have the book they were looking for
LB= I don't care if you don't like them, you can not trun people away because of race

I wanna know what your boss was on, 'cause it must have been some good stuff.

^-.-^

[worddork]

I wanna know what your boss was on, 'cause it must have been some good stuff.

^-.-^

I think Vicodin she bought in Mexico, ice tea, and vanilla flavored cigarettes, which apparently went mixed together makes crack.

[Parrothead]

My mom is a math teacher (Remedial ninth grade this year, middle school last year). Last year/ semester, she had two students start fighting (sixth grade boys ). She broke them up, and another student told her she was racist. Mom looks at him, and looks at the two boys, and says "Tommy's white, Billy's white, I'm white. Who am I being racist to?"

The kids laughed.

*Names are changed A) for kids' protection and B) 'cause I can't remember them.

[piratemonkey]

I remember when I got called Anti-Semitic because I told a woman we'd sold out of Jewish Chronicles and no, I wasn't going upstairs to check because I had just come from checking for that very same newspaper. Apart from that, I've never been accused of being racist, although I've been called an 'uptight white bitch' a couple of times.

[mirth]

All right y'all...

First, I prefer to be both racist and classist. Whatever job I work, I'm the *nicest* to black, poor people. Every single time they are nicer to me than most of my white customers have ever been, no matter how I'm treating them. Because I know and have seen many times racism.

Black people, Latinos, and Asians often get overlooked. It isn't always conscious either. They literally just don't get seen. I have seen co-workers lie to different races of customers or go out of their way only for white customers. If you ask them whether they treat black customers differently, they'll honestly deny it. If you ask them if they're racist they'll deny it. They would be deeply surprised and hurt I thought this way. But sometimes deeply held prejudices work out on different levels.

I tend to think everyone's a little bit racist. Even me. I tend to think that most everyone here has tried consciously to treat everyone the same. I don't think anyone here would purposefully treat someone differently because of race.

I'm not saying that all people who play the race card are doing it legitimately. I *am* saying that sometimes, if most of your life you have been discriminated against, playing the race card in some situations falls more into the category of "safe bet."

When I shaved my head and looked more queer, I got treated completely differently. Mothers pulled their children closer to them. Trucks of rednecks screamed at me from the street. I got shittier service and shittier health care more or less wherever I went. Hair grows back. I'm growing mine out again now.

I know that in my old job, there were at most three black people in a staff of 170. Two were in back of house. The manager of the deli was black, and none of the customers would ever approach him or talk to him. Even people who worked at the store assumed that he wasn't the manager, that a white co-worker was. He worked very, very hard. He wasn't offered promotions or pay raises like other managers were , even though our department made more money than all the others. I believe that if he was white it would have been different.

That's my schpiel.

[piratemonkey]

I'm nice to whoever is nice to me. I'm shittier to white people, but that's only because there are more shitty white people in my shop. I honestly couldn't give a rat's bottom about ethnicity or class...if you're nice, I'll be nice. If you're a prat, I'll treat you like a prat. For me, it's the easiest way to deal with people.

[draggar]

I'm racist because I didn't swap out someone's wet phone.

I'm also racist because I decided to fix a print server (that servises 4 floors) above someone's Windows media player issue.

I"m also racist (ready for this one?) because we only have malinois (brown and black) and brown German shepherds and no Groenendales (black Belgian sheepdogs) and no black German shepherds.

While just chit chatting with another cashier at the grocery store where I used to work, I happened to say that I don't like rap.

Her response: "You don't like rap? You a godd*** racist m*****f*****."

Guess I didn't get the memo that only racists hate rap music.

Did I mention she was white?

I also got accused of being racist because I didn't like rap (although the guy who said this was an ass). Then, I was listening to some Elton John and he said I was a "fa**ot and was listening to fa**ot music". Sure enough, the next day Bennie and the Jets was on the radio and he was singing along.

[Listerfiend]

I'm nice to whoever is nice to me. I'm shittier to white people, but that's only because there are more shitty white people in my shop. I honestly couldn't give a rat's bottom about ethnicity or class...if you're nice, I'll be nice. If you're a prat, I'll treat you like a prat. For me, it's the easiest way to deal with people.

I think we all pretty much feel the same way. That happens to be the same case as my store--the white people in the area happen to be upper-class, and are all entitlement whores who are exeedingly rude. The minorities generally aren't nearly as bad as the white people (even if they may have the same socioeconomic status) and seem to be much more respectful and kind. I don't know how it works, but I prefer to help minorites because most of them are a lot nicer than the white folks.

[Bright_Star]

I had customers get pissed off at me cause I'd be helping customers who were of spanish descent & being that I'm Puerto Rican it was easy for me to help them. So the customers who were pissed at me were WHITE & said I had no business talking in spanish!
Told me it ought to be against the law! I was like "WTF???"

[draggar]

I had customers get pissed off at me cause I'd be helping customers who were of spanish descent & being that I'm Puerto Rican it was easy for me to help them. So the customers who were pissed at me were WHITE & said I had no business talking in spanish!
Told me it ought to be against the law! I was like "WTF???"

Tell them to try shopping in Miami, especially Bay Side or Haileah.