Racial Slurs…Again

I was leafing through last month’s issue of a magazine while intermittently surfing the net and listening to the news on TV (not sure if Comcast has a term for that type of multitasking yet), when I heard something that made my jaw drop. Literally. WTF???  Are you kidding me?? Right here in Chicago???  Well, here we go again.  The furor over that Desperate Housewives scene has barely subsided when here comes another cheap hit.  Why do these people feel the need to hurl racial insults?  In this case, you are a salesperson (presumably) and you treat your customer that way?!  Don’t you want their business?  Are you targeting a specific ethnic profile?  Caucasian, perhaps?  If so, why not just place a huge f***ing sign on your store front, so Asians like me don’t make the mistake of going inside, ok?  ( Yeah, and get sued in the process too!) 

I’ve had my share of bad days at work, and regrettably there are occasions when my customers would find that visibly etched on my face, but I have never, ever, directly insulted anybody, ever.  Oh I won’t be a hypocrite and say I have never felt the need to throttle someone’s neck at times, particularly if they’re really being daft, but the main thing is, I don’t act on it.  Either my girlfriends hear about that customer over lunch break, or over the phone, immediately after the customer has left.  It’s really hard not to be pissed off when you have so much paperwork to deal with and you get interrupted by stupid questions.  Still, you are representing your company, so superhuman restraint is called for on occasions like that.  But overt racism?!  There is no justification.  None - especially if that person has done nothing to you, except ask for a few seconds of your time for directions to the nearest fitting room. (See news article below).

Seriously, I do not know what to do if that happened to me.  I really don’t.  It makes my blood boil to hear that being done to fellow Pinoys, so what more if I was involved in such a situation?  I don’t know, I guess, my knee-jerk reaction would be to ask incredulously, “What did you say?”  I would probably feel like being punched in the stomach, the air knocked out of me.  I mean, sure, you read or hear about it, but not in a million years would you expect it to happen to you, because for one thing, you expect the people around you to be civilized already.  We are after all, not in the Dark Ages anymore.  Then I would ask, loudly, to speak to their manager, while hurling back insults of my own.  B says it’s probably not a good idea to fight fire with fire.  Although getting the name of the offender and asking to speak to their manager is a good move.  But, do I call the police?  Or is that too exaggerated?  Is it even in their purview to deal with such situations?  Obviously I’ve never experienced this before. 

The closest I came to such an experience is a bus driver loudly asking if I could speak English, because I look (and am) Asian, and she asked loudly because I was already halfway to the back of the bus, and when I approached her with a terse “Yes, why?” she just wanted me to swipe my bus card again.  She actually thanked me after I did.  My other ‘encounter’ couldn’t be categorized as a racial slur, because the man was actually being an “ass-ist” Sure, I can laugh about it now, but when it happened, when I heard him murmur to the person next to him that my huge ass was blocking the exit, I wasn’t laughing then.  The palengkera in me couldn’t keep myself from glaring at him and letting out an emphatic expletive.  Oh it wasn’t in Tagalog.  That would’ve been pointless.  But then these experiences are mild, compared to what Frannie experienced.  Being called a mail-order bride, and some other garbled words that were meant to sound Chinese?  Contemptible behaviour, to say the least.  The victim is a decent, hardworking nurse, just shopping inside H&M.  Is it really too much trouble to lift your finger and point to the general direction of the fitting rooms?  Really? 

********************

Protestors Rally Against H&M Store

Participants Take To Streets After Alleged Discrimination Of Chicago Military Nurse

Suzanne Le Mignot
Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO Protestors took aim at a well known clothing store on Michigan Avenue Saturday. A clerk at H & M is accused of verbally harassing a Filipino woman with racial slurs. As CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reports, the Asian American Institute has filed a discrimination lawsuit with the city’s commission on human relations.

They carry signs that say, “H & M equals hate minorities,” and “H & M Discriminates,” all because of what allegedly happened to one woman at a Michigan Avenue store.

“I was saddened by it and I was compelled to be here,” said protestor Gamy Pascual. “I don’t know Frannie personally; as a minority here in Chicago, I have to stand up for my own self.”

The protestors wanted to bring attention to Frannie Richards. The Filipino American nurse was shopping inside the store last month, when she was allegedly mocked and harassed by an employee.

“Called her a mail-order bride, mocked her English,” said Richard’s sister, Tracy Los Banes. “She asked to go to the fitting room. He pretty much was saying: ‘Can’t you read English? It’s over there – fitting room.’ And as she was walking away, he was saying ‘ching, ching, chong.’”

Richards’ family says the alleged harassment was completely unprovoked.

“She’s a retired U.S. Air force nurse,” Los Banes said. “She works at Northwestern. She’s born and raised in Chicago and she speaks English perfectly fine.”

“It’s really important for our community to know and like Asian and other minority communities to know that we can’t tolerate this,” said Robyn Los Banes.

H & M issued a statement, which says in part: “As an equal opportunity employer, H & M does not tolerate harassment, discrimination and/or violence of any type.”

H & M is investigating the complaint and also says employees are trained in the company’s zero tolerance police in an effort to ensure that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity.

Richards wants H & M to provide diversity training for their employees and to fire the one that allegedly harassed her.

His fate still isn’t known. Her family says, she has yet to hear back from the company.

H & M is refusing to comment on the complaint. Company officials say they’re actively investigating.”

(source: CBS2 Chicago)