Is this racist and should I have said something?

[clary]

Colleague who I find rather right wing (I don't mean in a Tory voting way, just more the opposite of my woolly egalitarianism) was saying she needed to find a dentist. I said, mine's great but not near where you live, is there one local to you?

Well there is, she said, "and I don't mean to be racist [never a good sign] but if I go to the dentist, I want to be able to pronounce their name."

Is that racist? or am I just thinking it is because it's tied up in my dislike for her right-wing ignorance (as I see it, eg in regard to Brexit, the Queen, paying tax)? and if it is indeed racist, should I have said something, if so, what? (what I did say was "err, it's great if you can find a good dentist" which was not any kind of answer).

Sounds like she was saying “ I don’t like foreigners” without actually saying it.
As to whether you should have said anything, are you prepared to argue with stupidity

Well I'm a bit right wing and have a marvellous dentist called Karim so I think she's just a bit thick.

Leave her to it, it's her own racist fault if her teeth fall out...

Sounds racist to me. I rarely have a need to use my dentist's name.

I want a competent dentist who can understand what I am saying and that I can understand in return. Same as any other professional I'm dealing with.

how is this racist? i need to be enlightened if it is, tons of difficult to pronounce and spell surnames and first names.
if you generally don't like her, just don't speak to her.

Yes it is racist.

If someone says 'I don't mean to be racist but...' you can be damned sure they are talking about race rather than pronunciation. Otherwise why mention it? That's why it's racist.

More xenophobic then racist as actually has nothing to do with race. Anyway she could have irish dentist and not be able to prenounce there name. REally not worth loosing sleep for. But someone I would,nt get too close to.

Of course it’s racist. She can’t be arsed to pronounce Johnny Foreigner’s funny name, but she might be including white Eastern European names along with BAME names, so that’s obviously dandy.

Well I presume the name is from another culture and it's as if she's judging someone for their name...I used to be a teacher and never felt it would be acceptable to say to a student "your name's too hard to pronounce properly."

Can't not talk to her really, only three of us in the room.

Started the sentence with i don't mean to be racist but.... big clue there.

Nasty piece of work. The first thing you do with anyone is learn how to say their name and make a point of getting it right.

She can't be bothered, can she? I had the best dentist ever; a tiny Polish woman with the daintiest hands. When she left I had a rugby player look alike with hands like hams and I felt the difference in jaw ache with his, "Open wiiiide! “

Make loads of recommendations to her -

Khan
Singh
Patel
Owusu
Jayanthan
Abdul
Sultan
Baig
Begum
Okola
Rajah

Etc.

And if she flusters over those,

'I didn't realise you have reading difficulties, I'll sound them out for you'

She's a racist. And deserves embarrassing.

Yes Shetland that was my thought too, if it was just a name like Daigon (student I knew) you might wonder how to say that, but wouldn't mention racism as he was white British...the fact that she said racist made me presume it was an unusual Asian name. Yes can't argue with stupid can you.

By the way if I told you one of us is a 30yo millennial and the other is an old codger in her 50s I wonder which way you would all guess?

Whatever she is, she’s got a shit method for choosing a good dentist.

It's quite a vague sort of racism / xenophobia as it doesn't single out any particular nationality / heritage / skin colour.
If you don't choose to be patient and learn to pronounce people's names, it can alienate most nationalities. Not sure where she is from, but could struggle with some Welsh names or Irish names, not sure if that's technically racist or xenophobic but it certainly isn't inclusive. Let's be honest, it is unlikely that this is what she means though. I struggled with Polish names when I first needed to learn them, it took all of 2 minutes to learn the rules, it would definitely be harder to find an NHS dentist!

My dentist is 'furrin' - well actually she's probably British but with a foreign name which i can pronounce without any problem whatsoever. In fact it is on the list above by a PP. I'm sure there are many British names which people can't pronounce. In fact most people get my very British surname wrong even though it is 2 syllables which are pronounced exactly as you would expect them to be phonetically.

She is an idiot!

Hmm. My maiden name was German and complicated. My married name is English and v complicated. People have commented about my funny/peculiar name all my life. "Er that a funny name, where's that from" or 'well it doesn't sound how its spellt" or "ha ha ha" in a piss takey way.

I think it's just pig ignorance.

My answer would have been 'I'm more interested in how good a dentist they are than what their name is' .

My uk dentist is polish - but I get anything other than basics done in Turkey where I can pronounce the name (kind of) but not speak the language.

Incredibly racist, but you already knew that. Does she feel the same way about GP's etc?
The mind boggles, any dentist should surely be fine - black, white, man, woman, gay, straight and anything that I've missed. What the actual hell does a name have to do with looking at her sodding nashers.
She needs to get over herself.

Definitely racist remark.

I don’t even know my dentists name!

Sorry, in my rant I forgot to put - any should be fine if they are doing their job well!

Clary I 've seen you around for years. I reckon you're the old codgr - from one to another

I bet you are the old codger clary

It is racist and she's employing a "thin end of the wedge" technique. She sounds thoroughly unpleasant.