Racism makes everyone uncomfortable.

So I have two jobs, and I find that while I deal with rude and stupid people at Flta, I tend to deal with a type of rudeness that's more like a snotty rude, at the hotel I work at. I have to say that I have been at this job for just about a year, and I have few stories about people being rude to me. I think that it's because the people that I interact with, seek my help. In other words they need something from me. I get complaints about things sometimes that are simply out of my control, but people need to vent, and they vent to me... to "make you aware". This story is one of those cases, and old gentleman let's call him Mr. China, came to me one evening and had me literally at a loss for words. Which is very difficult to do.

Mr China is a fit older man, he reminds me of that old guy on Seinfeld that keeps trying to prove that he is still strong and fit and thinks that he can beat Jerry at anything... it's a funny episode if you haven't seen it. Anyway so he comes to the desk a little later in my shift around 7:30. He puts both of his hands on my desk, and I greet him with my usual "Hi, what can I help you with?" He releases a deep sigh, pauses, and then begins..."I took a cab to Chinatown last night and it was almost $12." Let me just say, that's a pretty normal fare to Chinatown from the hotel and I already know that there is nothing I can do or say that is going to really matter in this situation. "Well that is about what it would cost, that's a pretty standard fare."

"Well i googled mapped it on my phone, and it told me to get on the highway here, and he didn't do that" Let me just say that 1) he has a better phone than I do if he can google map and 2) there is nothing I can do about this old man!!! yell at the cabbie not me. "Well sir, you have every right to tell a cab driver how out want to go, however even if you got on the highway out there the cab still would have been around the same price."

He shakes his head and shows me on a map how the cab driver took him, and I said "Well yes that is a little out of the way, but really sir the cab fare would have been the same." "Well I got out of the cab and then I just walked the rest of the way! So who knows how high the fare would have gone!" Okay, he said it right there Now this is where things get awkward... to say the least.

"Well I just, I don't really want" this guys isn't mad he's frustrated and I can see his wheels turning. Let the racism begin in 3, 2, 1... "Well the driver, he was like Indian or whatever you know. None of them are from this country. I don't even think he spoke English, he probably had no idea where he was going." Pause... long pause, because I am not saying anything! What the fuck am I supposed to say: "Yeah tell me about it. Fucking immigrants! But sir you must admit they do a great job on landscaping, nails, and dry cleaning... am I right!?!" He begins again "I've just had a real problem lately with people in this country who don't speak the language and are taking our jobs..." Again, complete silence, I take the stack of papers on my desk that I use to write on, and begin to organize it, you know tap it on the desk, like I am a news anchor or something. And I pretty much stay silent, because, what the fuck.

What really kills me about this situation is the fact that this guy is complaining about immigrants and people who don't speak the language and he wants to go to CHINATOWN! Chinatown, because everyone speaks English in Chinatown. Chinatown were everyone was born and raised in America. Good old Chinatown.

"So I want to go to Chinatown again tonight, how do I get there on public transportation?" REALLY, really. You want to go back?? "Well that's going to be a bus and a train, you are going to take the number 20 to State street, and then take the Red line and then you will be right there." I am also pretty sure he could have looked that up on his google map on his fancy old man phone and then that way we could have just really avoided this whole awkward situation all together.

"Okay, I'm going to just wait for my friend and then we'll go." His friend then comes down to join him. It's a lady, a young lady, a young Asian lady. Now I don't know if this is his lady friend, a work colleague or whatever. I just find it a little ignorant to be racist against a minority but then hang out with one.

Oh, and the next night... He wanted me to help him find a good Korean restaurant.