Casual racism and coronavirus

[Starbuck8419]

Ahhh it’s nothing like the good old Blighty spirit to bring everyone together in a time of crisis. This isn’t a helpful post but I’m kind of a bit....shocked by it.

Stood in the que at Tesco. Ok it’s busy (as per you get at Christmas) but it’s not bedlam. Lady in front of me is Asian (Pakistani, Indian or somewhere similar.) The cashier is putting back/taking out items from the conveyor belt before being scanned and keeping them on the side. The shop is a bit too noisy for me to properly hear the conversation but I assume it’s stuff she doesn’t want anymore because it’s not the usual “only three loaves of bread and toilet roll” you’d expect. It’s tampons and sanitary towels and cauliflower etc.
It all seems friendly enough, she pays and goes after it taking a bit longer than you’d expect.

I talk to the cashier as it’s clear she’s having a rough ride with it being so busy. She explains Tesco are only letting people have three of any product and it’s irrelevant what it is so I say “oh ok I guess that’s why the lady had to put back half her shopping then” (or words to that affect.

“Yeah and it’s always them doing it as well.”

“Them?”

“Yeah you know....them.”

She carries on scanning. I stand there catching flies and move on.

Erm.....ok love. I part laughed and part stood in a bit of shock. She said it like it wasn’t anything.

It would be interesting to ask other supermarket staff whether they would say the same thing.

Of course you can’t tell a persons nationality or cultural conditioning from their skin colour alone but the anecdotes I’ve heard and the things I’ve observed myself would certainly seem to suggest that the panic buying is definitely more pronounced and the dog eat dog attitude is more noticable among people who were not born in the UK. I can’t say I can pin it down to a specific nationality or heritage though.

I spent many years living abroad in a place that was a multicultural melting pot. It always fascinated me how differently you could expect people to behave in certain circumstances depending on what cultural background they were from. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

I’ve observed that in comparison to some cultures, white British people can behave appallingly too, so it’s not an anti foreigner thing, I just think that different demographics react better or worse than others, depending on the specific circumstances.

There's a woman I know who works in a supermarket on the tills. She has some kind of learning disability but that doesn't excuse the fact that she always, always short changes the eastern european customers. And brags about it.

Oh my god! Does she not get pulled up for having a till that’s over every day or is she pocketing the money? You should report her. Although she might be saying she does that for attention without actually doing it.

Nah she does, my brother worked there so I know she does. I used to live quite near her and she would brag to me on the bus, so I asked my brother and he confirmed all the staff have seen her do it. Tbh she gets away with a lot, but she's also sneaky, very vocal about 'disability discrimination' so I doubt management would do anything.

If she's stealing from the customers then I don't think disability discrimination is going to protect her. Your brother should report her.

'Them' .. guess some people havent moved with the times. I agree with the previous poster, different demographics will react differently. Its not nice to say 'its always them' .. its true that white british people can act just as bad

I think it’s ridiculous to think it’s ok to say to someone “it’s always them.”
Mental

Considering most white people can’t tell an indan from a south american she is being unreasonable.

Wow.

A lot of Asian people have large families and live with parents/grandparents/siblings so I can imagine it must be really difficult for them to shop at the moment. My Indian neighbours have 12 living in their house at the moment and are having to all go shopping together and pay separately to get around the buying limits. No excuse for the racism though

Yeah I feel sorry for them and anyone who gets accused of “being one of them.”
It didn’t even cross this woman’s mind she didn’t know the rules. I wasn’t aware the rationing was on EVERYTHING until then either