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Was I wrong?

wildone

Entry posted by wildone

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So I did something tonight that I've always wanted to, but have always kind of just turned away and ignore it.

 

It happened in a McDonald's of all places :P

 

I walk up and a lady asks me to take my order. She is an older lady, by her accent would guess she originally came from Eastern Europe.

 

Next to me is a man about 55 who has already put in his order and is starting to get louder and louder as he is saying that Canada is giving away all our jobs to the foreigners. He gets louder and says the banks are contracting out Canadian jobs to the Asians. He then says that all the jobs in this country are being taken up by Asians moving here and taking our jobs.

 

I'm a couple feet away from him and just couldn't tolerate it. As I looked at the staff up front and in the back, a lot are visible minorities. I got close to him and said in a quiet voice that his comments were not appreciated in public.

 

Next he yells at me that I obviously hate Canadians and probably married to a immigrant.

 

That was enough! I didn't keep my voice down and told him if he wants to spout his racist views, do it somewhere else. He yells at me 'Do you think I'm a racist?" I tell him based on his speech the last couple of minutes he must be a racist. And it isn't wanted out in the public.

 

Next he says that he isn't a racist, he just doesn't want foreigners in Canada. I laughed at him and said the view alone is racist. Maybe you should leave the restaurant and go mutter to yourself outside how you don't like anyone other than yourself, because no one wants to hear you anymore.

 

He turns and leaves and calls me an Asian lover. I let it go since he is leaving.

 

The lady helping me and then the guy that was helping him both told me thank you. I went and sat down the manager came over and thanked me too. She said I was the first person to stand up to his behaviour which they all have had to put up with.

 

Funny thing, a much older lady comes in and sits down with him (I would almost guess it was his mother) and he starts to rant that I called him a racist. He is off on another tangent but is still on his racist views. Finally I her her yell STOP. She gets up and comes over to me and tells me that he is a racist and she is glad that someone finally put him in his spot. Then she leaves.

 

I finished my burger and left myself.

 

I'm still riled up an hour later! What gives people the right to even think that was in the least bit appropriate in public. I personally want to ship him off to an Arctic Island where he won't be bothered by anyone that isn't his kind. The fact that Canada is a melting pot of immigrants (yes, I'll use the American line ;) ) means he is from somewhere else or at least his parents probably were.

 

/rant

  • Like 24

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Fishwings

This is sad but I've noticed that more and more Canadians are voicing their racist opinions, probably due to an increased amount of Chinese immigrants. Most of the time it's not as public as your scenario, but I've come across it a lot through social media sites, such as my local news articles.

 

I'm really glad that you went up to tell him that he was being an asshole. The world needs more people like you.

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paul.b

I think you were right to tell him he should keep his opinions to himself and his friends . In the UK we have a lot of eastern Europeans most of them work hard and do the jobs that others won't , but there are always the exceptions and those are the ones that we hear about the most and turn people against them

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Mark Arbour

Good job.

 

You should have pointed out to him that true Canadians are never that rude, so he must be an immigrant too.  ;-)

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Kitt

NO - YOU WERE NOT WRONG!  

 

While everyone has a right to their opinions, and to be a racist ass, there is a time and place to voice those views, and in a restaurant ( even fast food) is NOT the place!

 

I wish more people had the nerve to say something in a situation like that!  

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joann414

More power to you.  Much to my husband's dismay at times, I'm very vocal when it comes to racists, homophobes, and bullies.  He agrees with me completely, but doesn't want to have to kill someone if they hurt me:P  My make up does not tolerate ignorance well.  In my occupation, I deal with many nationalities.  I find the majority of the immigrants are very humble and appreciative.  It bothers me though that they seem shocked when I'm nice to them and many times if I'm not busy, initiate conversation.  Doesn't cost me a thing.  Seeing them smile is worth the effort. 

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Trebs

Great job!

 

In the US, the term "Illegal immigrant" is thrown around a lot.  I grew up knowing my father, though born in New York City, had parents that immigrated from Ireland (grandfather from Sligo and Grandmother from Dundalk - opposite sides of Ireland and met and married in NYC).  My mom is Japanese - my dad met her when he was in the military working on reparations.  My mom's dad was an architect and worked with the military in rebuilding bridges and the like and introduced my parents.  Though my mom wasn't in the US when we had internment camps, that history was something that was very powerful to me as were the asian exclusion acts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

The chinese and japanese were here - and just like so many other immigrants in California, drawn with a hope for a better life.  "Illegal" just means that those who have power created laws that discriminated to keep their own kind in power.  The laws usually were not in place to deport the chinese or japanese - why bother when they provided tons of needed and cheap labor.  But if any asian thought to protest their lot - then the laws were there to say "Hey - you don't belong".  The same laws are still used to deport latino's who step out of line.

 

it is easy to say immigrants are ruining the country, or don't belong or some other claptrap.  It is ironic that in come cases, the families of those minorities may have been here before the families of those complaining....

 

Sorry for soapboxing in your blog - but I am so proud of you and ... well - I just started typing and this all flowed out.

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Mann Ramblings

Oh god. If only I could have witnessed that. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall of that McDonald's... wait... that doesn't sound right.

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Billy Martin

No, you wasn't wrong. I think I would have felt the same and I hope acted as you did.

 

However, I do hold strong views on immigration, but since I feel that is more of a political topic I will not post them here.

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wildone
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Thanks everyone. To let you know this was just after work which I left in a great mood, I had handed out Christmas cards to 35 people and most dropped by to say thanks. Then, to walk into that was just infuriating. After it was done I asked the question of myself....Should I have done that or should I have done that differently?

 

Luc - I agree. There is more and more racism starting to show in Canada. The reasons I don't really know why. I do think the media jumping on every single case of an illegal immigrant that has committed a violent act being deported, every a major firm outsources some jobs but not reporting that any of the outsourced jobs were 'lost' as their company picked up new contracts, the one person in a group of ethnic grouping abusing the system. In Calgary 1/10th of the population is if Filipino descent. Yet people seem to forget that they are here, working, paying taxes, spending their money, contributing to the economy and some criticize them for sending any spare money to the Philippines. What is so wrong about taking care of your family that aren't as fortunate?

 

Paul - It is a sad thing that I think has spread across the Western World. My friends Dad expressed some racist views when we re-elected our Mayor. Who happens to be the first Muslim Mayor of a major city in North America. He does a great job and NEVER brings religion into his job. When asked about something that happened with the Muslim world who general response is 'What answer did you get from Mayor so-so, he is Christian' . Otherwise, don't ask me a question because of religion, ask me my opinion of a Mayor. BTW, between his kids, grandkids and his wife, my friends Dad will think twice before voicing his opinion ;) .

 

Mark - that was one of the things I was struggling with. Was I just as rude by pointing it out :(

 

Kitt - that was first for me with a stranger. What I took from it is that maybe in the future I will keep it quiet and still say something. But keep it quieter than a yelling match.

 

Joann - Good for you! I guess everyone needs to step up and it sounds like you do. :hug: The funny thing I thought about is would I have done the same thing in the US. The fact that handguns are mainly illegal up here and only the hardest of criminals carry them, I felt that this wouldn't escalate to violence. I know it is another topic on the side but do you think of your own personal safety when situations like this happen?

 

Breeze - Thanks! Not sure where you live, but hopefully most people are not so narrow minded as the jerk I experienced. Guess I should say that this guy IS the exception to the rule of people I do encounter, not the norm.

 

Slytherin - Thanks :)

 

Trebs - We had the same issue with the Japanese and the interment camps in WWII. A few years back the Canadian Government officially apologized and started to settle claims for lost property and such. It was way too late, but IMHO it was the right thing to do. It still surprises me that how people can look at the colour of someone's skin and decide they are a illegal, or even an immigrant? :o

 

Last thought :) How do we change this?

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Kitt

You have already taken the first step. Lots of people feel the way you do. Now maybe some of the people who were there will do the same. that is to speak up when they see racism being spouted that way. A rock slide can start with a single rolling pebble.If you influenced two people to stand up for what is right, and they influence two more...

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Fishwings

Immigrants often do act differently than residents of a country. There are a select few whom do not understand the ways of a country and may come across as rude, and others whom do abuse the legal system. One major cause of concern in Vancouver was that a lot of new Chinese immigrants, because of their booming economy, were able to invest in a huge amount of real estate and may have (or might not have) played a role in the inflation in housing.

 

Because of this many people were enraged and quickly formed generalized negative stereotypes of all Chinese immigrants. I had to unfollow one of the facebook pages from my university because of the amount of racist bullshit that was being spewed by my fellow students.

 

tl;dr when things change in Canada and immigrants come (whether they are or are not the cause of change), people get their racist on.

 

As to how to change things...

 

I think we need to continue to do things like you do Steve and call people out on their bullshit. Racism in our country is due to a lack of knowledge, context, and empathy. When people group together and form schemas on other minorities and no one tells them that they're wrong, they'll continue to be racist and exacerbate the problem.

 

In addition, I think basic social justice courses in college and university should be made mandatory. There are too many overeducated canadian kids around who think they know homophobia, racism, feminism, etc. :P

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Breeze

I agree with Luc, we do what you've done. I am all for a peaceable way. I'm from Saskatoon, and we are growing at an amazing rate(Saskatchewan as a whole) our economy is great. A large part of that due to immigrants and I'd hope we welcome them and embrace them all.

I can only speak about  Canada and what I've observed over the years, but we are a very diverse country and becoming more so every year. And I am proud of that. We arent perfect, but our doors are open.

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W_L

Thank you from a chinese guy, I find racists to be ignorant and there reasoning to be based more on fear than truth

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mickey1952

Way to go, wild! He's not only a racist, but an ignorant bully. And bullies will rarely stand their ground when confronted in a public setting. And bullies are almost always cowards; this one obviously was.

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Kitt

I'm not sure where you are coming from trebs, but when I took poly-sci the term illegal alien referred to someone who came into a country in violation of existing laws at the time of their entry into the country.  It has nothing to do with how well liked a particular group is or if someone complains about their lot or steps out of line. Granted there have been issues where people have abused political power, but it is hardly fair to label immigration laws as just another form of prejudice.

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AC Benus

When he said: "Next he says that he isn't a racist, he just doesn't want foreigners in Canada."

 

You should have replied: "Funny, that's exactly what First Nations people say about you!"

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