Two from this past week

[Rapscallion]

Well, something pops up...

Rapscallion

[Flying Grype]

I'm sure he expected you to agree with his opinion, whatever it was. I went through the same thing during the 2008 election. A patient starts going off on Obama, including a number of highly racist comments . . .

Aah yes. They assume that because you're white, you must be willing to engage in racist small talk with them.

[Magpie]

Aah yes. They assume that because you're white, you must be willing to engage in racist small talk with them.

Yeah... really fun with it's a lawyer/university instructor in his 80's (they get him to teach the 4th year engineering law course) who makes those statements. You not only don't want to dignify his biases with an argument, but you feel like you ought to have somewhat more respect for someone that age and position than the usual response to such idiots.

[Soulstealer]

Yeah... really fun with it's a lawyer/university instructor in his 80's (they get him to teach the 4th year engineering law course) who makes those statements. You not only don't want to dignify his biases with an argument, but you feel like you ought to have somewhat more respect for someone that age and position than the usual response to such idiots.

Yeah, I've had to reprogram my thinking that age =/= respect. Most older people don't want to be treated like they're senile or children so I'm helping the fight against ageism by not giving them special treatment.

[Andara Bledin]

Aah yes. They assume that because you're like them in some manner, you must be willing to engage in racist small talk with them.

There, fixed that.

This sort of thing crosses all boundaries. So many people think that if you're the same in some arbitrary category (race, religion, ethnicity, social status, etc, etc, etc) that you must think the same way they do and are sometimes completely shocked when you have the temerity to either have an opposed viewpoint, or even just decline to discuss it with them.

I sometimes get people that I'm calling for work who will engage in what is really not quite appropriate conversations for a business associate (usually politics, rarely religion), and I'm pretty good at being generally non-committal when they say something I think is completely outside of what I, personally, think is right.

But it can be tough to acknowledge the statement without also affirming the viewpoint.

^-.-^