Latent racism

[desh]

So you walk into a dry cleaners or tailor that you've never used before. You're greeted by an Asian person with a thick accent.

[Poll #585314]

(Results are private. No one except for me will see how you voted, but anyone will be able to see the aggregated answers. Please answer honestly; I'm rather curious here.)

Comments

[dredpiraterober.livejournal.com]

"It only bothers me if the person's accent is so thick that I'm worried about them understanding me."

It would bother me because I am afraid I won't understand them.

[arie]

"It only bothers me if the person's accent is so thick that I'm worried about them understanding me."

It only bothers me if the person's accent is so thick that I'm worried about understanding them.

I couldn't care less otherwise.

[erin.livejournal.com]

ditto this.

[shamanix.livejournal.com]

Thirded.

[outcastspice.livejournal.com]

i picked the second, but it's plausible that i'm in denial and just dont realize it.

[bumonyou.livejournal.com]

Although anonymity goes a good way to addressing this, I dont think you can count on people to represent themselves accurately*



*notice how I didnt say honestly? People often have a certain idea of themselves that does not completely align with reality. They aren't being dishonest, they've just never thought of it before.

[desh]

Oh, I know that, for sure. But I'm friends with an honest and introspective bunch, and anonymity does help.

On the other hand, the fact that I don't yet have any 3's and 4's probably shows how right you are.

[shamanix.livejournal.com]

Or it might just speak well of the people on your friends list. :)

[trelana]

Agree with everyone commenting re: "It only bothers me if the person's accent is so thick that I'm worried about them understanding me." I'm not worried about them misunderstanding my words -- I'm mostly just concerned about inadvertently offending someone if I do ask someone to repeat themselves because I didn't quite catch what they were saying.

[ladypeaches.livejournal.com]

I have only once been bothered by an accent and only then because I was making an important phone call and they kept saying "You call back later, click."

[ladypeaches.livejournal.com]

It was just rude.

[conana.livejournal.com]

Somewhere between 2 and 5. I agree with other people that my ability to understand the accent is probably more an issue than eir being able to understand me. I think with dry cleaning I don't have any real bias, but with skilled labor like tailoring or cobbling, I tend to look for something to suggest proper kavanah, and I'm more likely to believe that of someone from some other culture.

[desh]

I love that you said both "eir" and "kavanah" in this comment, and it has me thinking about what a small cross-section of the population would use both words.

[toughgav.livejournal.com]

here here! ditto, that.