WTH is wrong with you??

[Andara Bledin]

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

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.

There is nothing wrong with either of you or the things you said.

The problem is on the assumptions of the person on the other side getting in the way of them actually listening to what you said rather than what they thought you meant.

Sometimes people need to think of the source and context a little more before flying off the handle.

Of course, then you run into people like the one mentioned in the OP, and those just are begging for a good clock-cleaning.

If anyone tried that carp with me over the phone, I would totally go off on them as if I were one of those they'd insulted and see how they feel. Teach them to take an "us vs them" attitude with a stranger.

^-.-^

[Starlord]

I was Lead Security Supervisor for a homeless shelter, andhad a 23-person force, about 70% of whom were black. I found a man's jacket lying out on the property one day, and handed it to one of my men, and said "Found, one black man's jacket." It suddenly dawned on me that Andrew (not real name) was a rich mahogany, and what I had said suddenly sounded wrong. You would have laughed yourself silly about the verbal gymnastics I went through, trying to 'correct' what i had just said. Suddenly, Andrew busted out laughing, and said not to worry, he understood exactly what I meant, but that it was funny. He said, "sometimes white people just get too tied up in what sounds right." I had the best staff under me that I could ever have wanted.

[Noelegy]

I grew up with people who honestly thought the town had the word "White" in its name because (at that time) there were no black people living there...

[Aldous]

Flatnose? Isn't that like the Hutu/Tutsi genocide in Rwanda? I swear that one of those tribes (Whichever one was massacred, I think Hutu, but I haven't read up on Rwanda in a really long time) was called Flatnose. I could be wrong.

[Sharsarannon]

Its interesting how some things offend some people in certain places and not others. Here in my half of the USA, black people prefer to be called black, or some of them prefer African american. You call them a "person of color" or "negro" and they'll go off at you. But in other places people of that particular descent prefer to be called 'colored' or what have you. interesting how that seems to change with areas.

Me myself, I hate being called White, but that's because: ONe, I am not "racially" "white", on the records I'm native american, I just didn't inherit the dark skin like my brother and two of my sisters did. Two, I'm more of a toasted almond color.


Three, I'm Anglo-american, descendant of Saxons, Celts and Angles, if we're gonna be picky I like to keep a sense of humor in these things ya know.

This lady with her rude comments deserves a good kick in the face or something nice and vindictive.

[Hon'ya-chan]

I've heard of Flat-tops, but flatnoses is a new one....

[Andara Bledin]

I'm not white.

I'm melanin-challenged.



^-.-^

[XCashier]

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?"
...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!"

Something similar happened to me one Halloween. I needed some hairspray that turned your hair different colors (white, black, blue, red, green or purple). Walked into the local beauty supply store and asked the African-American employee if she had any colored hairspray. She glared at me and looked like she was about to throw me out. Fortunately, there was a huge display of different colored hair sprays nearby so I grabbed one and said, "That's what I need." She got the "Oh!" expression like your manager and was a lot friendlier.

:sigh: There's got to be an easier way...

[Rolling Star]

I'm not white.

I'm melanin-challenged.



^-.-^

Good one. Anyway, I've never heard of the term "flatnose" either...