Rascism knows no color. Or every color?...

[FunBobbyMucha]

So I'm taking my wife in for a biopsy last Friday, never fun, and we're there at 8 in the morning. I hold her and comfort her and whip myself into a "what would I do without her" silent panic, then as they take her away I walk my white male ass to the cafeteria. It's 8:55 when I walk in. The breakfast stops at 9. I fight with the soda dispenser for two minutes (every cola comes clear) and then give up, and push my tray down to the steamer tray region. The black female cafeteria worker doesn't even make eye contact, begins pulling the steamer trays and mutters "We're closed." I stand there for a second and she repeats herself. I walk around the corner to the vending machines, which take my dollar, and hear the same cafe lady laughing loudly with a black woman who has just walked in (it is 9:03 at this point), and she begins to ladle out food from the "closed" trays onto this woman's plate. I approach her and she just stares at me as if to say "What?!"

On the plus side, the biopsy was negative.

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. maybe it's not racism

Maybe she just likes women more.

[DarkPhenyx]

3. OK, change topic line then.

Bigotry and bias know no boundries of race, sex, religion, or nationality.

[GOPisEvil]

2. It might be a friendship thing...

...or she may dislike men...or white people...or maybe she just felt like fucking with someone that day, and it was your turn...

This'll learn ya - get your food first, then the drinks. :-)

Glad your wife's biopsy was negative.

[AP]

4. Think of all the shit she must get all day. And forgive her.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. I would agree

Except if the tables were turned, he'd have one hell of a law suit on his hands. Racism isn't acceptable, no matter who the source is.

[AP]

8. Yeah, there are so many lawsuits that stem from the treatment she gets

all day long.

Every time a white person and black person stand at a counter, and the white clerk asks the white person what they want even though the black person was there first, there's a lawsuit, right?

Uh, uh. Private acts of people like this don't result in law suits, regardless of which way the tables are turned.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

20. You sort of twisted the scenario

The black clerk decided not to serve the white customer at all, but did serve the black customer.

If it were a white clerk that chose not to serve a black customer, but did serve another white customer, there would be definitely grounds for a discrimination law suit against the company the white clerk worked for.

[LagaLover]

6. But if she does it again

call her out on it. No reason for service providers to provide bad service. People would call you out if you do your job poorly; she should be no different.

[AP]

9. I wonder if in indentical, but reversed circumstances, she'd get fired

for doing this, but a white person wouldn't.

I actually think Amerca has changed enough in the last couple years so tha this would never happen. However, ten years ago, I'd be surpirsed if any white person was ever fired for doing something like this to a black person.

[LagaLover]

11. Actually

I think, today, a white person would more likely be fired for this. Why? Because if a White person did this to a Black person, I think it would be assumed to be racially motivated despite the lack of evidence supporting a racial intent.

[AP]

12. maybe if the supervisor were black. I know for sure that if this were

sexism, nobody would get fired even today.

Sexism is really tolerated in the work place today. I think there's been lots of backsliding with sexism.

[LagaLover]

13. Not where I work

Sexist attitudes, that manifest themselves in a harmful or unhealthy workplace environment, will get you canned in a heartbeat. I work for a good company.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

7. The woman she served may have worked there

When I worked in a hospital, staff members were served longer hours than visitors. The cafeteria is primarily for feeding workers, like it is at other places with onsite facilities. Hard for visitors to tell who works there and who doesn't.

Doesn't justify rudeness though. Hope the good news about the biopsy overrides the unpleasantness.

[AP]

10. I was thinking that too. I'd like to think that the other black woman in

the hospital cafeteria was a brain surgeon. But, chances are, this was working-class loyalty rather than anything else.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

15. Admissions, Housekeeping, Central Supply, Medical Records...

There are dozens of departments in a hospital and they employ all kinds of people. Lots of employees wear nothing other than a badge that identifies them as staff. You get a half hour for your meal, if you're lucky - if there hasn't been a flood of new admissions, or if your shift isn't short of help - and it's impossible to go offsite. Food services are for patients first, employees second, visitors third.

I just can't conclude she was racist rather than rude.

[LagaLover]

16. Then she should

have explained that. Rude or racist-she was still wrong.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

17. I don't disagree she was wrong, but

it dismays me to see so many leap to the conclusion she is racist or sexist because he is a white male and she is a black female. I've had the exact same thing happen to me (a white woman) when dealing with other white women.

[FunBobbyMucha]

18. No badge, not an employee.

I've worked in hospitals for years, that was not the case. She had a visitor's pass on. Also, the cafeteria hours were posted for everyone.

I was held down by the Man. Or Wo-Man.

[Odallas]

14. If the cafeteria was not closed you should have gotten your food anyway.

let her call security if she had a problem. If it was her restaurant , thats one thing, but since it was the hospital you deserved service.

[H2O Man]

19. Two things:

First, none of the "-isms" can be justified. Racism, sexism, ageism, etc, etc. They just are not okay. Second, every group has a percentage of fools and a percentage of idiots. That's just the way it is. The good thing is that while you were insulted and inconvenienced, you were not injured. Slowly, things are changing.