I was about to put on some gel deodorant, but the damn thing turned out to be all liquidy and spilled all over the dress I planned to wear tonight. Argh, I'm so pissed.
Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Posts: 5928 Location: San Francisco, CA Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:17 am Post subject:
Unqualified renters.
We had prospective tenants come over and view the property and there was this group of kids - a couple and their friend - who was really interested in renting our home. We look over their application and they haven't even stayed for three months in their current residence and they were already being asked to leave for "Noise Complaints", we couldn't get ahold of their references and before their current residence, they were living in their parents houses. These kids aren't even 21! They even had the gall to tell us that "they would really REALLY really love to rent our house" and I'm like.. B, you gotta be crazy.
Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 11363 Location: �I�[�X�g�����A Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:00 am Post subject:
Anime Dad wrote:
Why does stuff posted FROM Australia always take twice as long as stuff posted TO Australia? I sent out 3 packages over a week ago, none of them seem to have got there yet. But a CD posted from the UK got to me really fast
Update: 2 of my packages have found their mark, one is still "out there" somewhere. And another I sent to QLD still hasn't arrived after a week
Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 61 Location: United States Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:
An older, probably late fifties-early sixties Japanese woman asks me a question, while eating some Japanese confection, which I have honestly never seen in my life. I asked her what it was. She tells me and of course, I have no clue what it is. "Well, you're not Japanese, so you wouldn't know". To which I reply, but I am Japanese. She of course, does not believe me ( this happens all the time. Even if I would have spoken to her in Japanese, her response then would probably be, how do you know Japanese? ) I tell her I'm Japanese-American as I was born here. Her answer then is, "well, then it's because you're half." And no, I'm not half either!
Incredulously, she says, "well I don't think I believe you."
WTF?! Because I'm not speaking Japanese??? Well, that's because she's speaking English! Or is it because I had no idea what the hell she was eating? Fine, if I don't look Japanese to her, what can I do to convince her. But what confounds me is why I would lie about it.
Later I thought about that incident and whether that was a back-handed insult. Or whether it was intentional even. Then I recalled that I've known Japanese people of the older generation ( friends of my parents and their acquaintances and such ) and some of them have a quasi-racist filter that they see the world through. At least that's the way it seemed to me. They will sometimes let a racist comment slip that they think I don't quite understand. Sometimes it'll be outright slamming another race, but usually it's more subtle. I don't want to really elaborate more on that, as it would probably offend.
Was this lady racist? Was this a racist slam toward me? Hard to say definitively since I talked to her for a sum of maybe 3 minutes. But it was jarring nonetheless. And this coming from someone who's of the same nationality as myself. True, being Japanese-American is not the same as being a native Japanese, but still.
Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 11363 Location: �I�[�X�g�����A Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:
^ Being an average white male, racism is something I have not experienced firsthand here in Australia. I/m not sure if a comment from someone of your own race can be racist? I realise it's a touchy subject, so please forgive me if i've touched a nerve.
Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 61 Location: United States Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:29 pm Post subject:
Anime Dad wrote:
^ Being an average white male, racism is something I have not experienced firsthand here in Australia. I/m not sure if a comment from someone of your own race can be racist? I realise it's a touchy subject, so please forgive me if i've touched a nerve.
I've experienced racist remarks before. Mostly I just ignore those remarks. I didn't initially become upset about it as such. But the more I thought about it, I was wondering what she was thinking or why she would say what she said and moreover, the tone in which she said it.
I've had people question my ethnicity before. That's not a problem or even a touchy subject. But the fact that she didn't believe me was weird.
Can a person of the same nationality make a racist remark toward someone? Never really thought about that, but in her mind, I wasn't Japanese like she was. Or at least that's how it came across. Weird.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:35 pm Post subject:
kazuya_ wrote:
But the fact that she didn't believe me was weird.
The most surprising thing for me was that she actually said it out loud. I kind of half-expect strangers/acquantainces not to believe me, even if it's just something trivial. It's normal to be skeptical. But usually people don't say it...
Maybe she was trying to have the last word (she didn't expect to you to be Japanese and was thinking the conversation ended with her non-Japanese wouldn't understand line.) I don't know, purely guessing.
---
I found 2 series on my wishlist for sale, and then I saw in red letters, "Out of Print".
Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 2331 Location: in South Atami Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject:
kazuya_ wrote:
Can a person of the same nationality make a racist remark toward someone? Never really thought about that, but in her mind, I wasn't Japanese like she was. Or at least that's how it came across. Weird.
Happens all the time in my country: French speakers versus Dutch speakers (usually with a very right rightwing political orientation). Or all of those idiots combined against non-caucasian Belgians.
Discrimination is perhaps more accurate? Stupitity and ignorance for sure.
Don't let me get started on how much that bothers me
An older, probably late fifties-early sixties Japanese woman asks me a question, while eating some Japanese confection, which I have honestly never seen in my life. I asked her what it was. She tells me and of course, I have no clue what it is. "Well, you're not Japanese, so you wouldn't know". To which I reply, but I am Japanese. She of course, does not believe me ( this happens all the time. Even if I would have spoken to her in Japanese, her response then would probably be, how do you know Japanese? ) I tell her I'm Japanese-American as I was born here. Her answer then is, "well, then it's because you're half." And no, I'm not half either!
Incredulously, she says, "well I don't think I believe you."
WTF?! Because I'm not speaking Japanese??? Well, that's because she's speaking English! Or is it because I had no idea what the hell she was eating? Fine, if I don't look Japanese to her, what can I do to convince her. But what confounds me is why I would lie about it.
Later I thought about that incident and whether that was a back-handed insult. Or whether it was intentional even. Then I recalled that I've known Japanese people of the older generation ( friends of my parents and their acquaintances and such ) and some of them have a quasi-racist filter that they see the world through. At least that's the way it seemed to me. They will sometimes let a racist comment slip that they think I don't quite understand. Sometimes it'll be outright slamming another race, but usually it's more subtle. I don't want to really elaborate more on that, as it would probably offend.
Was this lady racist? Was this a racist slam toward me? Hard to say definitively since I talked to her for a sum of maybe 3 minutes. But it was jarring nonetheless. And this coming from someone who's of the same nationality as myself. True, being Japanese-American is not the same as being a native Japanese, but still.
That kinda pissed me off for the rest of the day.
I don't blame you for being pissed... Those kind of incidents really gnaw at a person, especially since no resolution or conclusion was reached.
It might have been marginally racist and more of a generational thing: people from the old country seem to think they're better than those who followed... My mother is like that and so were my grandparents...
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum