Seventy-sixth Question
Have you ever been discriminated against or had someone treat you with prejudice? Explain the situation, how you dealt with it (if at all) and how it made you feel.
posted by Sublime @ 9:52 AM
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12 Comments:
At 1:00 PM,
Kaycee said…
I went car shopping to get prices on the vehicles I was interested in. The idea was to go get prices and then report back to hubby to discuss what we could afford and what I really wanted. I walked into the Honda Dealership on Route 1 in Alexandria Virginia and told the guy I wanted a price on a Honda Civic with specific things in it. He wanted to show it to me, have me test drive it yada yada yada. I said I just wanted a walk out the door price so I could take it home and talk to my husband. He said, "Well, why don't you come back when your husband can come in with you". I could have decked him.
At 1:57 PM,
I n g e r said…
Days after 9/11, my son and I were shopping in the grocery store and a child spit on him: walked up to him, glared at him, and spit. She was about 9, he was an infant from India. I gasped and hollered at the girl, and her mother came running. "Your daughter spit on my son," I said to her. She looked at my son, frowned, took her daughter's hand, and walked away.
I'm still flabbergasted over that one.
At 2:22 PM,
nancy =) said…
in the neighborhood where i grew up i always felt my family was looked down upon...we always seemed to have less than everyone else on the block and some poeple kind of avoided us for that...but that's just my perception of course...also i've always been kind of on the chubby side but i have had moments in my life where i was able to get down to a smaller size and whew!! did i notice a difference in how people treated me heavier vs thinner...ciao
At 3:34 PM,
Claire said…
Never really been discriminated against, but I have had it work in my favor. My college major was a mostly male major, and I felt like I was allowed into the program mostly because I was a female. Everyone knew it was easier for girls to get in the program, and it all just made me mad that I couldn't get in based solely on my own merit.
At 5:45 PM,
Bent Fabric said…
Jeez, where do I begin. Let's just say I've been called the "N" word more times than I can count. I don't lose my cool, however, I just tell them nicely how much of an asshole they are for such narrow-minded thinking.
Sometimes it's not that blatant. Take for example years ago I showed up for an job interview. Two seconds after meeting the guy he says, "you sound white over the phone." My response was, "I am white, but I belong to a gym with excellent tanning facilities."
Sadly, I discriminate occasionally. If I'm walking down the street alone (day or night) and there is a cluster of guys (no matter their race) hanging around I will cross the street. I'm not sure if I am being safe or being discriminatory although I suspect the lines overlap. I consider it discriminatory because I operate under the assumption that these guys will cause harm to me.
At 6:29 PM,
Asaph's Table said…
I was working very closely with the pastor of a small, mainline denomination church. I had some theological issues that I had spent YEARS struggling over. When I discussed it with the pastor, he initially politely advised me to attend another church, but that our friendship would remain. A couple of weeks later, he called me and told me to never speak to him or his family ever again. That led my family down a long road of geting slowly and systematically black-balled by other area churches in the denomination.
Initially, I was extremely angry and stunned. Now, I'm kind of glad, because I've been able to re-evaluate my life and, I believe, become a better (not bitter)person.
At 10:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
Being over weight has lead me to be discriminated against.
The first time I can remember being discriminated by peers was in second grade. We were doing a written assignment and reading this Shel Silverstein poem. It had to do with how much each kid cost (4 cents for the skinny ones, 17 cents for the curly haired ones, blah blah blah) and this boy looks at me and says "You'd be 6 cents, because you're a fat one."
I know now that he didn't mean it to hurt my feelings. He said it so matter of factly, it was just a statement to him. She's fat, he's skinny, they're white and he's black. He didn't find it offensive, just descriptive.
Funny thing is, I talk to him occasionally now and I don't think there's a nicer guy out there... And I'm still over weight.
I just looked back at him and back down at my paper, pretending I didn't hear him.
It hurt like hell though...
-C.
At 1:19 AM,
Ace of Spades said…
I use to be a manager for Pizza Hut a couple of years ago and I had this a**hole for a manager above me. I overheard him talking one day to an employee of mine saying he has one manager that sucks and one manager that is a dike(talking about me). That made me so mad, I had him fired within the week. That might teach him to keep his mouth shut if he has nothing nice to say.
At 2:23 PM,
Robert said…
I was with a schoolmate shopping at some stoopid mall down in Orange County. 2 high school boys were behind us and called us 'fruit loops' [tho I think mostly cuz my boy-friend was carring a Chanel backpack, tres chic!]... Anyway, I followed them and blurted out some horrid language and wanted to kick their asses.. but they fled. I was fummin'!!! Oh I was spat in the face once cuz I was lookin' 'androgynous', or something!
So anyway, that's about it. I love how some of your readers handled the situations! kudos to everyone! I happened to see the movie Crash the other night... it kept Alec and I talking afterwards.
At 1:42 AM,
AKH said…
I remember walking into some hoity toity store once and the people looked at me like I was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (you know when she went in without Richard Gere).
I guess my jeans weren't classy enough for them. WHATEVER, I didn't want any of their expensive shit anyway.
Can't you tell, I'm over it.
At 12:50 PM,
Stacy said…
I think tattooed people should become a federally protected minority. I have too many to count...over 40 hours under the needle. I always get looks - especially when I am with my 2 beautiful children. Sadly, the one incident I remeber most was when I went to "moms-n-muffins" breakfast with my son at his school when he was in 1st grade...one little boy looked at my arms, and said, "MOM! LOOK AT THAT!" She could have handled it in a variety of ways...but she chose the ignorant way. She just stared at me, stared at my son, and went to another table. I was flabbergasted.
How do I deal? Wearing silly shirts, and getting them for my kids. They both have one that says "my mom's tattoos are cooler than your mom's". I have a funny shirt that says "wanna see my tattoo?" (funny because I have so many) and another that says "Jesus loves me and my tattoos". : )
Self-inflicted discrimination, so I can't really bitch about it.
At 12:25 PM,
Christina said…
Not me personally, but my husband is always getting ribbed by his gentile friends for being Jewish. They seem to think it's funny, but it gets out of hand. One of our friends even describes things he thinks of as lame as being "Jewish." It's terrible and ridiculous.
At the same time, a (jewish) friend of our family refers to black people as "schwartzes." This is a disparaging Yiddish term for people of color and it angers me every time I hear it. My mother-in-law finally said something to him the other day that began with "How someone whose own religion has been faced with so much pain and discrimination can use a term like that is embarassing and disgusting..." I was really proud of her.
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