Inappropriate? Racist?

[Dizzyhelterskelter]

I was in Iceland earlier buying one of those disposable foil turkey trays. The oldish man on the till, who is always very friendly & jovial, said "hey, these are good" and put it on his head pretending it was a hat. Then he said "I'm a Chinaman" and did a "slitty eyes" gesture with his hands. I was a bit taken aback, firstly as he had his bald head on something I was going to put food on and also thought his Chinese impression was rather racist. I didn't say anything and neither did any of the other customers. Instead I just gave a weak smile but was left thinking maybe I should've ticked him off or am I just overreacting??

No point in making a scene, We're British after all so we don't make other people feel uncomfortable. It's the British way.

Oh FFS, do people still buy into this?

He made a slitty eye gesture. That is racist as fuck.

We're British after all so we don't make other people feel uncomfortable. It's the British way.

Are you for real?

I’m assuming those who don’t think it’s that bad or it’s okay to ignore because we are British it whatever other crap are not of BME heritage. If you are of BME heritage and think like that then I assume you are like the ‘cool girl’ of racism. This sort of behaviour is horrible, even if not witnessed by a person of Chinese ethnicity- it is essentially continuing a cycle of racism because no one calls it out for what it is and people assume it’s cool to do that sort of crap.

I am British and English but not white and things like this make me feel upset and embarrassed in my country.

It's racist. Of course it is. I bloody hate the 'quantifying' of racism.

It's racist and I'd have reported him to the store manager.

Report, report, report. First thing tomorrow.

I would also have reported him. It is racist and offensive and this sort of casual discrimination should be stopped. He should receive training so that he understands why these types of comments and this behaviour is entirely inappropriate in any setting.

Words such as oldish and elderly diminish the value of older adults. Ageist terms should be as unacceptable as racist or sexist ones.

There aren't two types of racist jokes. There is racist and not-racist.

And his age is immaterial.

“It is racist but it would be overreacting to tell him off. ”

WTAF

And there is no category or different types of racist jokes. It is racist or not. Simple

Oh yes,report him and get him sacked. That would be justice....yawn..

My child's teacher does this!

Do our children go to the same school allegretto? Were they taught to do it singing “Chinky chink chink, chan chink” which according to the teacher is the Chinese for “Happy birthday to you”...

I complained.

This proper made me laugh, just because it's so weird and inappropriate.

It is racist, but alot of people seems to think it's ok to mock east Asians. You still see it on the telly.

Not wanting to derail the thread if we go into town and DH orders a takeaway from the hotel he calls a restaurant but will hang up if they don’t speak good English (he doesn’t want to have to repeat the order) is that considered racist?

How is that relevant to the thread kursk?

Words such as oldish and elderly diminish the value of older adults. Ageist terms should be as unacceptable as racist or sexist ones
How is elderly an ageist term? Presumably you can't use middle aged or young either?

Yes he was racist although he would probably say he wasn't. If you can't do the confrontation then a dead pan expression and a raised eyebrow should communicate enough disdain to make him think about what he his said.

It was racist and you should have challenged him.
But to be fair to you a bloke putting a turkey tray on his head and making racist comments isn't exactly something you'd expect to happen and have a pre prepared way of dealing with.
If I were you I'd think of how you would deal with this sort of thing if it happened again, and next time challenge it.

My dd came back from school one day when about five doing this, I explained that all the girls at school were doing and the Chinese girl at school who was in the friendship group didn't mind at all. I died a little inside, hoped it wouldn't get back to the little girl's mum and tried to explain why it really wasn't okay. I was pretty surprised that this sort of thing was still happening. While five year olds don't know any better until taught, adults should.

As an aside I also object to the idea of anyone using my foil food tray as a hat, echh!

Ewww I would have demanded a new tray or went elsewhere tbh, why’s he putting merchandise on his head for racist jokes? Vile man

Very unhygenic. I would not have been able to get past that.

I'd have challenged it.

I challenged a colleague who used a racist term to refer to getting a takeaway. They were shocked and said they'd always referred to it as that and had no idea it was racist. They canvassed opinion - colleagues were equally split between those who thought it was racist and those who had no idea it was. No one thought it was but said it anyway.

No excuse though. Always challenge racism.

Back in the year dot, when I was a young child, there were many everyday sayings and expressions that were racist. It has taken a big effort and some years for them not to escape past my lips by accident. This man needs more self awareness and more practice being a decent person, making fun of others is not nice.