Socallica wrote:As far as the Spanish speakers "pretending not to know English" go. I've got some experience there. I dated a Salvadorian girl for a little under a year, so I managed to pick up some Spanish (it made talking to her family easier since most of them don't speak English very well or at all). But we stayed friends, and I'm still considered part of the family. Well, I've never heard her grandmother speak English at all. One time I was taking her home from a graduation and since it was just me and her, she dropped the ruse and asked me "Do you take the 605 home?" in pretty good English (esp since she used the phrase "Six-O-Five" and not "freeway"). I was dumbfounded cuz it had been two years and that was the first I'd heard anything but Spanish from her.
Ha!!! That sounds like my grandmother! We had gone to Sea World for the day and were coming back and for whatever reason, the border patrol was stopping everyone in San Onofre. My grandma didn't have her passport with her, but she looked like your stereotypical Mexican granny, with the grey hair in the bun, dark dress, medallion and sweater. Anyway, the guards looked at her in the back seat sitting next to me and my little brother and asked her "where were you born?" and in perfect, unaccented English she says "L.A." so the guards said, "oh, o.k." and waved us through. Then as soon as my dad had the car on it's way, she starts ranting in Spanish about how she didn't know she would need her passport just to go to Sea World. And she really didn't speak any English - she just understood some from watching T.V. when she'd fly up and visit us...
I think my favorite incident of "you're only picking on me because I'm -----" was on Parade G.C. We were trying to get everyone infront of the planters to sit down as usual, and there was this one man over by Plaza Inn who was leaning against a trash can who refused to sit, then spouted off the "you're only telling me because I'm Black," so I pointed out that "no sir, if you'll look behind you we're asking you and everyone in this section to sit so that the people who are behind this planter can see the parade too," which of course didn't work.
If anyone remembers goof-ball, nearly seven foot tall lead Steve F, he came over and handled the situation, then told me about another man who did the same to him, so Steve replied "awww, sir, I wish you hadn't said that to me." And the man beligerantly asked "why not?" So White Bread Steve says "because my dad is black" in a really hurt tone of voice, so the man gets embarrassed and said "uh, sorry man" and immediately sat down.
I think the most shocking to me was seeing it among my fellow CM's. About 20 years ago, when I was working in merchandise, there was an older lady working the in the Christmas shop and, being the teeny location it was at the time, when the line backed up, the line really backed up. I got pulled suddenly from another location to go to Xmas and help, and this older lady CM was red in the face getting sent out by one of the supervisors and a department manager. The lead, who was a darling girl my age, who happened to be black, was also rushing out the door in tears. The supervisors helped me clear out the line and I found out later what happened. The lead had gone to the register to help this CM get through the transaction faster - she was reading prices off, and the woman got flustered and said "I don't want no n****r telling me what to do!" It obviously shocked and hurt the lead, but to make matters worse, the guests being helped at that moment were a black couple. So of course, they were upset as well, and the supervisors were still apologizing as they were going out the door. The couple complained to City Hall. The racist CM was given a suspension, and when she came back she was ranting to me how the company wanted her to go to counseling, but there was nothing wrong with her - where she came from [f***ing black] people didn't tell white people what to do. It freaked me out. I didn't want her to know I was Mexican, because then I though she'd treat me like dirt. Anyway, they did make her go to counseling, but they ended up terminating her because she wouldn't change, let alone apologize. But later on, I realized that there were a lot of the old ladies in Merchandise at the time, who'd been around since the park opened, who had the same attitude - they just weren't so vocal about it onstage, but they would talk backstage and it was really horrid. I just kind of came to the conclusion that they were a product of their times - it was socially acceptable to think that way when they were young and their belief systems were forming. That didn't make it right - it just was something you learned to deal with. I felt so bad for the lead in this case. She was one of the nicest people you ever met in your life, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous - sort of Beyonce before her time - and she was just trying to help this stupid woman out. Oftentimes, when we had the old manual cash registers, we would read prices for each other (this was long before scanners) just to be helpful. This lead ended up transferring into the Finance Office, and unfortunately, she died suddenly while I was working in Attractions. I still miss her - she was a true, blue friend and she didn't deserve to be treated in such a nasty manner.
It's nice to have a place to vent without worring about being told off for it.