WTH is wrong with you??

[iradney]

Short but sucky.
I just had a call from a woman who, while pleasant enough, dropped a bomb that made my jaw go

She said she was trying to get her settings, and she called her service provider, and the "flatnoses" there were useless. "Flatnose" is a VERY derogotary term for a person of colour.

I was flabbergasted. I continued with the call, but I couldn't believe she said what she said. I'm one of 3 white people in the call centre. The other 98% of my colleagues are indian, coloured and black. It is NOT safe to assume that because I speak with an English accent that I am white.

One of my colleagues suggested that I should've told her frostily "Madam, I am a flatnose" and watch the subsequent pant-shitting. I just can't believe ppl still say stuff like that these days...

[Best Made Tacos]

I've never even heard that term, luckily, but it is quite despicable. Can you note 'used racist epithet' in account notes?

[MoonChild2007]

Flatnose? That's new.

[mariamousie1]

I've never heard that either.
That woman was totally stupid though. How did she know you weren't of colour, as you've said? I guess a person can believe what they want, but use a little common sense! I'm not racist, but if I were I would be a much smarter racist then she is.

[AFpheonix]

You've probably never heard it because she's in South Africa.

I about died when we were at my mom's exchange student's graduation ceremony, and as they were trying to get things going, my mom said very loudly "Sit down, Mexicans!"

She earned an elbow in the ribs.

[mariamousie1]

My parents can be embarrassing like that. We were at a chinese restaurant for my birthday, and it was delicious! My dad said "pretty good for a race that spits on the sidewalk." Luckily no one heard him. I don't even want to get into what I hear from my mom when she sees middle eastern or chinese people driving on the road. How did I grow up so open minded?

[BookstoreEscapee]

My dad said "pretty good for a race that spits on the sidewalk."

I thought that 'race' was called MEN.

[Broomjockey]

I guess I'm pretty lucky. Other than some rants about East Asian/Indian drivers, my parents stuck to bashing genders. My dad would always be "Damn women" and mom would be "Jackass men!" so it balanced out nicely.

[Sharsarannon]

I thought that 'race' was called MEN.

Technically there are three races of the species Homo Sapien- Southern, Eastern and Western, as I tend to call them.

(Or as the Politically Correct like to put it, African, Asian, and European, or better yet ",Negroid,Mongoloid and Caucausoid" as if either of those are somehow politer)

I can't believe that woman. What a *&^%. (insert expletive of choice) I SO would have told her "Ma'am, I AM a 'flatnose'. You were saying?"

[LostMyMind]

"Flatnose" is a VERY derogotary term for a person of colour.

Wow, I never heard it used that way. I've always thought of flatnose to describe boxers or wrestlers who couldn't dodge well. I guess it's where you grow up that makes the meaning.

[iradney]

Well, being in South Africa where we have a well-publicised history of racial tension, plus a population that is not only 70% black, but has conflicting tribes within that segment of population (Xhosas don't like Zulus etc etc), and you have...interesting times...

[Marxfan]

Racism is still very prevalent these days. One time, while working at the bookstore, this very well-groomed, very suburban girl (no older than 17) with a thick Southern drawl comes and asks for Crying for the Beloved Country. Okay, strike one, she got the title wrong. I gently corrected her, saying it was Cry the Beloved Country. I showed it to her and she didn't believe that was it (strike two). So she calls up her friend on her cellphone, and describes the book to her. This girl actually said the following,

"It's Cry the Beloved Country... it has a colored man on the cover..."

STRIKE THREE!! WTF?! What person, under the age of 75, uses the term "colored man"??? Are you fucking kidding me?? Hell, I'm white too and even I was offended! People are unbelievable!

[Rubystars]

Technically there are three races of the species Homo Sapien- Southern, Eastern and Western, as I tend to call them.

(Or as the Politically Correct like to put it, African, Asian, and European, or better yet ",Negroid,Mongoloid and Caucausoid" as if either of those are somehow politer)

I can't believe that woman. What a *&^%. (insert expletive of choice) I SO would have told her "Ma'am, I AM a 'flatnose'. You were saying?"

Australoids don't fit neatly into any of those categories. Their ancestors were probably south Asian, but they don't look like Asians at all. They sort of look like blacks, except some of them are blonde, and they have more prominent brow ridges. They're most certainly not 'black' as in African black sense. European doesn't even come close.

So I would have to say Australoids are their own race.

You could also make a good argument for Polynesians being their own race and the natives of the Americas (who some consider mongoloid) being their own race, as they look quite different from Asians.

[Rubystars]

STRIKE THREE!! WTF?! What person, under the age of 75, uses the term "colored man"??? Are you fucking kidding me?? Hell, I'm white too and even I was offended! People are unbelievable!

Maybe it wasn't her choice of vocabulary so much as what the person on the other end of the phone would understand better. Maybe the person on the phone said before she left "Don't get a book for me if it has a colored person on it." Maybe she was just using the person's own terminology back to them?

That reminds me of something that happened at my job. Food Town has two fliers, one of them you can pick up in the store, which is gray, white, black, and purple. The other one only comes in the mail to people, and it's full color.

A customer wanted to price match something at food town and the gray and purple version didn't have the sale customer claimed it had.

I walked up to my supervisor who is black and asked her if anyone had brought the colored version of the Food Town ad. She got a weird look on her face and said "What? The colored version?"

I wondered what I'd said at first, because I usually don't think in those terms. Then I realized what that sounded like and I said "Yeah, the full color version. The customer is claiming there's a sale in it that isn't in the gray and purple one." The manager calmed down but still looked kind of confused.

A customer she was helping at the service desk tried to explain it to her too, because they knew what I was talking about, and she still looked kind of confused.

Later on, a customer brought the full-color version in with them and I showed it to the manager and said "This is what I was talking about." All of a sudden she looked like she felt kind of dumb and said "Oh! Ok I know what you meant now!"

I really need to be careful how I phrase things sometimes!

[JustADude]

I really need to be careful how I phrase things sometimes!

Oooooh yeah, I hear that. I once nearly got my clock cleaned by my blood brother, back when we'd only known each other a few months, because I forgot the name of a certain type of simian (can't remember which right now) is also used as a derogatory term for Blacks. He was up in the rafters where he was climbing around moving things, and I'd just gotten back from doing a lunch run. Being the smart-ass I am, I announced my return by yelling up something along the lines of "Hey, get your monkey-ass down and grab your food before it gets cold!"

He came down alright. He came down and nearly brained me with a wrench before I managed to figure out what had gotten him all and apologize.