Rude, Racist or Right?

[tarmactreacle]

I rarely travel by bus but yesterday I was queuing behind a man for a bus to town.

When he got on he said "name of destination". The driver replied "no, it's "single to name of destination PLEASE". Have some manners, We're in England"

The man then politely repeated what the bus driver had asked him to say, took his ticket and sat down.

The man was black and the "we are in England" felt unnecessary and made me feel uncomfortable.

What are your thoughts?

It's racist ! The driver made an assumption that a person of colour does not belong ... it was othering him .

Your example is explaining to your relative's the etiquette of being somewhere culturally different .

I’m not sure on this one to be honest.
Would it be considered racist if he said it to a white person from Poland for example?
I’ve found that many people from Eastern Europe have very different cultural notions of what we consider to be good manners.

It's not rude to point put a lack of manners.

The "this is England" does sound racist.

Although I'm not sure if we'd think the same if he said the same to a white American or Australian tourist.

I agree the drivers attitude stinks.
Most buses have cameras these days, I don't know if they record?
Hopefully they do and the bus company can review the encounter and decide if they want to give 'diversity training ' or whatever racist twats get these days 🤞

Yes of course this is racist too

A lot of people on this thread are making points around saying this to non-British white tourists or foreigners..,making the exact same assumptions of the bus driver that because this man was not white, he wasn’t English. Nowhere does OP say he spoke with an accent or had any indication of not being from England.

People don't usually say this to white people.
I was walking down an unfamiliar path the other day..Filled with dog walkers and families. A cyclists went by me and yelled " It's a fucking cycle path".
It wasn't ( no sign)
He didn't yell it at the dog walkers.
I know why I was singled out.

So do you think non English people are all rude and only English people know how to be polite?

Racist and rude

Would it not depend if someone has a strong accent that clearly said they were Australian or American?

So racist if they have an English regional accent, but maybe not if they had a Welsh or Scottish one? Or overseas.

Rude and racist.

Exactly.

On reading many comments … it occurred to me that I’ve been treated this way in several other countries. Where the locals are quite rude about my language skills, or not understanding cultural norms (like NO bags at all in a shop, no bags for life etc)

The people often short tempered, rude ….

But seriously I don’t think racist. Or do I not think racist because I am white???

Is it white privilege to never think someone is being racist towards you???

Polish isn’t a race. It would be xenophobia not racist.

But this isn't a white person from Poland. It is, as far as anyone knows, an English person.

You're responding to a racist incident that did happen with a "but what if this totally different scenario had happened instead?" response.

Racist. Would he have presumed to remind a white customer to say please I wonder…

It absolutely is rude. I mean, sometimes if someone else is being very rude another adult roll their eyes or make a sarcastic comment, which is also rude but I guess that's purposefully rude in response to original rudeness. This sort of "schooling" and telling off is NOT a cultural norm for a white British person to another white British person who does not say thank you.

Adults are allowed to be rude. we can all judge them for tyat rudeness. Choose not to spend time with them because they are rude. Even be a bit rude back if we want to. But we don't try to educate them on how not to be rude becuase... they are ADULTS and it's not other adult's jobs to do that.

As for the example about bags in other shops etc. It's possible there's some xenophobia, driven especially by irritation towards tourists. But in my experience, it's often just locals trying to help people navigate what is normal in their country.

But in your examples, you’re clearly not from their country. You’re speaking a different language with a difference accent. A clear tourist.

There was nothing about this man to indicate that he wasn’t British. No reason to reference nationality or country at all, or make any assumptions about him. Other than his skin colour. The bus driver saw a black man and decided he needed educating about how “this is England.” He would likely not have said the same thing to a white personal showing no other signs of nationality. He saw a black man and decided to chastise him using s racially motivated comment.

He was rude and he was racist and he has appalling customer service skills (or lack of). He should be reported.

Racist

Where I live in a northern city it is normal to just say the destination. There's a huge multicultural population and if the man was from this city he wouldn't know any different.

This is England definitely racist and unacceptable.

The bus driver was racist. He didn't need to say the England bit.

I do wonder if he perhaps thought the man was foreign and didn't speak much English if he just said the destination name without even saying please. Not saying please is rather rude, so pointing out that the person didn't say please is fair enough. He didn't need to say the England bit though.

I often/always challenge rude kids at school who don't say please and thank you.

Just imagining someone getting on a bus and saying "Name of Destination" made me chuckle, sorry to miss the point.

OP, what you should have done on your turn was just say the destination. The same way the passenger in front did. Just to see thre driver’s reaction.