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I know, I was shocked. It had never happened to me before. For anyone that doesn't know, I am half mexican and polish. Quite an odd combo, I know. But for the most part, I look like a normal caucasian.

This weekend I had gone to the mall because a new Best Buy had just opened up there. In fact, it was the largest one in southeastern Michigan or something. Anyways, while I was there I picked up Guitar Hero 2 for my girlfriend (hopefully it'll keep her busy and not be so clingy to me), Twilight Princess for myself, and two CDs. After I was done there, I decided it was time to buy new shoes. Actually, I had decided a while ago, but while I was at the mall, I thought why not. So from Best Buy I made my way to Footlocker.

I went into footlocker, and there were probably 2, maybe three other people in the store. They were just browsing, and told that to the employees who were asking for help. I was looking at their wall o' shoes when an employee, who was black, approached me and asked if I needed any help. I told him yes, and showed him the show I wanted and what size. He went to the back and got it for me. It was about this time that three semi large groups of people, all black, came in also. He gave me my shoes and asked me the routine questions "how does it feel, right size?" etc. I had told him no, and that i was going to continue looking, and if he could come back in a bit. He told me no problem.

So he runs back to the back to put the shoes away and as he comes back, I spot a shoe I like. I pick it up and wave him over. He sees me, but walks right past me to a group of three people behind me (one of the groups I had mentioned earlier). I stood there and even said excuse me, and while he acknowledged me, his promise of coming back was not fulfilled. He immediately began helping this group while I held the shoe I wanted in my hands. He even had to get by me and said "excuse me," so he knew I was there. This had happened with the other two black employees who were working there, so i decided to give up and go to another shoestore, Finish Line.

It was no better there. Once again, two black employees were working. One on the floor, and one at the counter. The floor worker was occupied, so I had gone up looking at the shoes closest to counter. The worker was just standing there doing absolutely nothing. I was picking up random shoes, and had even turned around to get his attention a few times. Once again, he told me to give him a minute or he was with a customer. It was about the second time I had done that when two black people had come in. Coincidentally, one of them was from my college, I could tell by the football sweatpants he had on. In any case, they had just come from the same footlocker I had, so I knew they were looking at shoes. They came up right next to me and had just begun looking at shoes. Almost immediately, if on cue, the black man behind the counter had asked those men if they needed help. Not me, even though I had been standing there for five or so minutes. Frustrated and not wanted to cause a scene, I went next door to Champs sports where I got near immediate service. The employee? White.

I go to a university where the student body is primarily black. The mall was in a community that is primarily black. In both situations, I have never had to deal with this type of service. To be honest, I was shocked. I didn't know how to handle it. It wasn't until I got back into my truck that I realized what had happened. I will keep it from turning into a rant, but I am just surprised that for as much as they ask from "the white man," they abuse it and ask for more. Sorry, you aren't being oppressed anymore. Especially by one man trying to buy shoes.

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And have you found your joy, in this near dead world of ours?

Just forget about it, not a big deal. Go to the same stores again ad see what happens, if the same thing happens again, then just don't go back there anymore. Some people can be pretty stupid. You have to get MAD, real MAD, and you will most definately get your service. I don't think been polite will help you in such cases. Fight fire with fire.

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

I think you might be overreacting a little. Maybe they just had a bad day? Anyway, in your place, I would just try to forget about the whole thing, not think about it over and over and over again. It's just not going to do you any good. Calm down, have some tea or something and relax.

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You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...

When I first started reading this I was sure it was going to be just a case of poor customer service, but it would appear that something actually was going on there. Being white and living in a predominantly white area of Callfornia, I have never actually experienced racism in that fashion. Probably the only experience where it seemed like something was going on was one time at a restaurant called the Sizzler, my family and I were sitting at a table to the right of a big group of hispanic people and for some reason they kept looking over at us and then talking about something and I picked up the word gringo several times. I ko w that doesn't necessarily mean they were talking about us but it sure seemd like it. But that's the only expeience that I can think of. But if definately goes to show that racism exists on all sides of the races. It's too bad too.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

I get flak from quite a few people for being Jewish. What those people did to you was wrong, but unfortunately, as long as races exist, there will be racism.

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Squenix games completed:

FFIII
FFIV
FFVI
FFVII
FFIX
FFX
FF Tactics: Advance 2
Chrono Trigger
Dragon Quest 8
Dragon Quest 11
Super Mario RPG

Unfortunately, sometimes it happens. Just try to imagine they're just bastards and not racist bastards.

I dunno, bro, like you said, you really don't look like you're any particular race, to me. So, yeah, it could have been racism, but then, maybe it wasn't. No way to really tell, and I have to take your word for it because you were there and I wasn't - and, of course, because I've known you quite a while and I've never known you to overreact to anything other than your rampant steroid usage.

I didn't think about it too much until you mentioned Finish Line, though. Way back a lifetime ago, I spent some time working in one of those, and it gives me a theoretical alternate theory: that you just weren't a big enough sale. If the other group was looking at the high-end shoes and you were looking at a pair of Shelltoes, the money (for a commission store) or the ranking (for a store like Finish Line) is the only thing these kids are thinking about, you know?

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

When you look at a school cafeteria, you can draw the racial lines with a crayon.

If you were grabbed and thrown into a multicultural room full of strangers, you gravitate towards your own race.

I'm going to go ahead and hesitate to call racism on this one. Black people love black people. White people love white people, and I love them Asians. It's just how it is. While I'm sorry that you didn't get your kicks on time, Gabe, I will say that I wouldn't worry about this too much. If this is racism, then everybody is pretty much guilty. It's just that you experienced this in a professional and commercial setting, which makes it seem that much more unbelievable.

I probably can't even begin to count the number of times that I overhear "Ching Chang Chong's" and "Asian invasions" when I roll in, especially if I happen to be lugging around a predominantly oriental crew.

But you know, people are stupid.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

I agree with Kappa, more or less. And Josh, actually. I was also thinking that at the first store, the other people who came in were people that the sales agent knew and wanted to impress (maybe they're repeat customers that spend a lot of money, or maybe they're friends, who knows), but to have it happen twice is odd.



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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

I think the two main lessons from this incident are:
1. Mall-chain shoe store employees aren't always the best with customer service.
2. Football players in college towns get special treatment.

Like everyone above me said, I wouldn't read too much into this situation, but I wasn't there. Do I think you would have gotten better service if you were black? Maybe. But you also might have gotten better service if you were buying more expensive shoes, or were on the college football team.


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Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

In away, I agree with Gears.
Who knows, alot of thinks couldve affected your purchase.
Than agian, maybe the group that walked in could be like some sort of higher ranked employees that could give the people a promotion

This may or may not of been a case of racism, as has been pointed out by all the people above me pretty much.


Personally I hope that us silly humans will wake up one of these days, and "race" and equivilents will fall out of common word useage. It may take a thousand years, but I have hope for it.

This post has been edited by Kaijyuu on 18th February 2007 04:39

Quote (Kaijyuu @ 17th February 2007 23:38)

Personally I hope that us silly humans will wake up one of these days, and "race" and equivilents will fall out of common word useage. It may take a thousand years, but I have hope for it.

That's like saying you want to throw away traditions, customs, and culture in order to create a more "perfect", more uniform, more un-diversified world. Which is ridiculous, unless I'm taking you the wrong way.

But that's off topic.

This post has been edited by Kappa the Imp on 18th February 2007 05:10

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 18th February 2007 05:10)

Quote (Kaijyuu @ 17th February 2007 23:38)

Personally I hope that us silly humans will wake up one of these days, and "race" and equivilents will fall out of common word useage. It may take a thousand years, but I have hope for it.

That's like saying you want to throw away traditions, customs, and culture in order to create a more "perfect", more uniform, more un-diversified world. Which is ridiculous, unless I'm taking you the wrong way.

Actually, that doesn't seem that bad an idea. Impossible, of course, but still preferable to crap like this.

It's technically racist what happened to you, but to honest, the shop attendants probably did it automatically, without thinking. We're all guilty of that. Just ignore it, and accept that they're most likely nice people.

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My deviantART profile

Sounds rather vexing, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.
At least you weren't being shouted or screamed at because of your race, which I've seen a fair few times and have had to deal with. Usually by chasing them down the street, hehe.
Racism is going to be around for a long time, just be happy that you're not contributing to it.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 17th February 2007 20:50)

When you look at a school cafeteria, you can draw the racial lines with a crayon.

If you were grabbed and thrown into a multicultural room full of strangers, you gravitate towards your own race.

the first part is definately true. walk into a school cafeteria and you see one side filled with white, one side filled with black.

for the second part, i gotta disagree there. chat regulars probably know what's coming already. i'm white, hell i'm damn near transparent. personally, i tend to gravitate toward the black community. things considered "white culture" just dont interest me.


as for incidents of racism, i've been involved in a few. i'll give you an example.

at the mall here in town(which cant even really be called a mall as tiny as it is), me and some friends were going into Men's Fit looking for some new shirts, jeans, and maybe some fitted hats. we walk in, clearly a group and begin looking at the shirt/jean sets they have on the wall. we eventually split up and i head toward the back to look at some Gibauds. my friend Isaiah calls for help to get down an outfit on the very top. however, one of the attendants walks over to me asking if i need help when i clearly know exactly what i want. the other three attendant just ignore isaiah's call for assistance. two other white people walk in, the attendant are on em in seconds.

however that wont be happening as the Men's Fit here got raided for selling bootlegged goods XD




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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 18th February 2007 05:10)

That's like saying you want to throw away traditions, customs, and culture in order to create a more "perfect", more uniform, more un-diversified world.  Which is ridiculous, unless I'm taking you the wrong way.

Yeah, you are.

Customs, traditions, histories, and cultures are all fine and dandy. They're interesting bits of trivia that can help denote where your family and such came from. In a nutshell, it's all historical background on your relatives.

What I'm hoping, is that people wake up to understand that it doesnt matter. You can be Asian, Caucasian, African-American, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, or any of the millions of other types of people in the world, but it really shows nothing of who you are yourself.

I'm not Hitler; I dont think that everyone should be one uniform people. Rather, to quote MLK jr,

Quote

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I hope that people will be judged by who they are, not who they came from.

Edit

Accidentaly cut off a word in the quote.

This post has been edited by Kaijyuu on 18th February 2007 19:34

well at my school, we have a very wide mix of culture so its not weird to see different ethnicity people hanging out with each other

I agree with most people here, it probably wasn't racism. Although I wasn't in your situation so I'm just going on what you said. Maybe the shop assistant knew the group of guys? I remember something like that happening a few times... Once in the perfume area (yeah I was buying perfume) the woman wouldn't give me a second glance, just chatted to someone for over 5 minutes. Then in Subway, the woman was talking to some guy that came in, and then drenched my roll in chilli sauce; not salsa. A bit annoying. It's just stuff we have to deal with.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Was it racism, or just general asshattery? Or was it as Josh mentioned, and just a sales-driven response from the workers?

After reading the initial post, I'm not convinced it was racism. Whether or not it was though, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I'm sure it was a little embarassing and shaming, to say the least, to be ignored like that in front of others.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Like most people here. I think that it could have been racism, but other factors come into play as well. Try not to let it get to you, the guys were most likely a-holes.

Also...

Quote

When you look at a school cafeteria, you can draw the racial lines with a crayon.

If you were grabbed and thrown into a multicultural room full of strangers, you gravitate towards your own race.

Number 1 is very easy to agree, with, although with many groups, it's very cultural, specifically the theatre/gamer/anime combo niche at my school, which is very large, thanks to my school being the county school for the arts.

Number 2, not so much. I tend to be quiet in aroom of people that I know, until I hear a conversation that perks my interest, or sense a personality that I enjoy, regardless of the color. In school, most of my friends are white (although many are black thanks to the thing mentioned above) I get along with anybody that's not an a-hole, but that's where my current friends are. This leads me to other things that bug me about this sort of thing, like the "acting white" sort of thing, but that's for another time.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.