Popeye's is Racist!!!!!

[Domen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p_SABG3SPk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCFZ6nh9djY

Probably.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I didn't understand the mindset behind some situations like this until I met my wife, and I have been slowly learning since then.

Imagine the hurt or pain you would feel if you were discriminated against purely based on your appearance. Some of you probably don't need to imagine it, sadly.

Now imagine if that discrimination were systemic, where it was a simple fact of life that you expected, and that you were surprised when it didn't happen.

That is the situation that many African Americans have been in, especially if they are middle aged or older. They spent their formative years (and many adult years) being told they were worth less and deserved less by society, not just individuals.

Why do you think Treyvon Martin, Ferguson, and several other cases have been so explosive? African Americans have been systemically discriminated against so long by even the courts that these cases have taken on powerful symbolism - sometimes in spite of what actually may have happened. If justice can be gotten from these cases, maybe it will make up for some of the injustice we've seen, is the thinking.

Discrimination is alive and well still in the American south, although it is slowly receding. Just several years ago my father-in-law was refused service at a Waffle House. My wife dated one person who wouldn't introduce her to his parents. One of her best friends from college told her that her parents would never let her marry a black man.

When you've spent decades being treated a certain way because of racism, it's hard to avoid attributing similar treatment to it, even if it's not true.

Do I think that Popeye's was being racist? No - it's a far simpler explanation that her meal was simply taking longer to make or got lost in the rush. Maybe the lady was just having a bad day. Everyone is nasty at some point.

Did she jump to conclusions? Yes. But so did you, by labeling her an

This is pretty much spot on, in my opinion.

 

[Hygro]

Come on, give me some credit. If the tone of her voice indicated she were joking, there would be no issue. She was legitimately angry though and I understand she had every right to be if she had been waiting for her food for a long time; but the fact that she was attributing it to racism was completely uncalled for.

Given the rest of your post it's clear you operate with some veil of unsympthathetic prejudice toward black people. Through such a veil, it is very easy to misinterpret many things as being socially antagonistic when they are not. This phenomenon is well documented.

To put it another way, given your OP it doesn't seem like you're a good candidate to parse these things.


However, there's another possibility entirely:

Perhaps you are not giving her enough credit. Perhaps she ordered something much easier on the menu than you did, and yet you still got your food first. Maybe she correctly noticed your food and compared it to her order and combined it with another observation at the counter and recognized that, indeed, they did unfairly give you your order first.

 

[JollyRoger]

Maybe it was the restaurant's policy to serve the front of the bus first.

 

[Farm Boy]

Given the rest of your post it's clear you operate with some veil of unsympthathetic prejudice toward black people. Through such a veil, it is very easy to misinterpret many things as being socially antagonistic when they are not. This phenomenon is well documented.

To put it another way, given your OP it doesn't seem like you're a good candidate to parse these things.


However, there's another possibility entirely:

Perhaps you are not giving her enough credit. Perhaps she ordered something much easier on the menu than you did, and yet you still got your food first. Maybe she correctly noticed your food and compared it to her order and combined it with another observation at the counter and recognized that, indeed, they did unfairly give you your order first.

Then again, unless Popeye's pays it's employees better than I think it does or it's much more fun than I think it is, so long as the food is clean and even remotely timely I think this all sounds like who's privilege is better/smaller/cooler/healthier.

 

[warpus]

Perhaps you are not giving her enough credit. Perhaps she ordered something much easier on the menu than you did, and yet you still got your food first. Maybe she correctly noticed your food and compared it to her order and combined it with another observation at the counter and recognized that, indeed, they did unfairly give you your order first.

That happens to me from time to time.. The kitchen can be chaotic, I give them the benefit of the doubt. I realize it must be harder to do for someone who grew up during racist times, but what she said was still not very kosher. You don't say crap like that. I'm sorry, but that lady is racist, no matter how she arrived at that condition, whether it was through years of racist upbringing in a racist society, or whatever. It's racism and it needs to be denounced, as crappy as life might have been for her.

Fight racism wherever it shows its ugly head - no exceptions.

 

[BvBPL]

I'm not ready to say that someone is racist because they claim something is racist when it is not actually racist.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The belief that events are determined by race is in fact racism, so I am ready to say the woman demonstrated racism. As a caution though, the OP can easily be read as 'those darn minorities are always racists', which is also racism.

For what it's worth, I would have turned to the woman and said "it isn't because I'm white, they just like me better because I'm not bitter"...but that's just me.

 

[Commodore]

Given the rest of your post it's clear you operate with some veil of unsympthathetic prejudice toward black people. Through such a veil, it is very easy to misinterpret many things as being socially antagonistic when they are not. This phenomenon is well documented.

It's not unsympathetic prejudice towards black people, it's more of unsympathetic prejudice towards people in general. I have just grown extremely weary of hearing people complaining about every little thing. I have seen and experienced the absolute worst side of humanity and have spent quite a bit of time with people who know what true suffering and oppression are and that has made me very unsympathetic to the "plight" of those living in the US or any other modern, developed nation. In comparison, the problems, issues, and complaints of just about every one here seems extremely trivial and not worthy of any significant amount of attention, yet the people doing the complaining treat their complaint like it is the most dire of issues that must be solved immediately.

When I see that kind of behavior from any citizen of a developed nation like the US, I can only attribute it to ignorance. Ignorance of just how bad things can really get and ignorance of just how good they really have it. The things I have seen and experienced have made me appreciate everything I have so much more and when I see people raising a stink about things that really aren't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things I immediately form a negative opinion of them because I start to see them as ungrateful and unappreciative of everything they already have and just how good their life is compared to a significant portion of the human population.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I have just grown extremely weary of hearing people complaining about every little thing.

I am unsympathetic to your complaint, as I deem it too trivial in the grand scheme of things.

 

[maverick48]

Given the rest of your post it's clear you operate with some veil of unsympthathetic prejudice toward black people. Through such a veil, it is very easy to misinterpret many things as being socially antagonistic when they are not. This phenomenon is well documented.

To put it another way, given your OP it doesn't seem like you're a good candidate to parse these things.

I.E. you're too racist to see all the racism! This is confirmation bias, pure and simple. They expect to be treated poorly and no doubt they have, many times it could have been because of racism, and eventually they get to the point where there's nothing anyone could say or do to make them think otherwise.

 

[BvBPL]

It's not unsympathetic prejudice towards black people, it's more of unsympathetic prejudice towards people in general. I have just grown extremely weary of hearing people complaining about every little thing. I have seen and experienced the absolute worst side of humanity and have spent quite a bit of time with people who know what true suffering and oppression are and that has made me very unsympathetic to the "plight" of those living in the US or any other modern, developed nation. In comparison, the problems, issues, and complaints of just about every one here seems extremely trivial and not worthy of any significant amount of attention, yet the people doing the complaining treat their complaint like it is the most dire of issues that must be solved immediately.

When I see that kind of behavior from any citizen of a developed nation like the US, I can only attribute it to ignorance. Ignorance of just how bad things can really get and ignorance of just how good they really have it. The things I have seen and experienced have made me appreciate everything I have so much more and when I see people raising a stink about things that really aren't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things I immediately form a negative opinion of them because I start to see them as ungrateful and unappreciative of everything they already have and just how good their life is compared to a significant portion of the human population.

The woman's statement is not a behavior founded solely in ignorance. She was also hungry and frustrated. The statement was more an emotional catharsis than one that should be taken as illustrative of her rational thoughts. Surely you can understand that she likely doesn't believe that, but was instead succumbing to a wave of emotion while waiting too long for a po'boy.

What's more, having to sit in the back of the bus or use a separate bubbler also aren't "that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things." The relative effect of any given situation to its immediate participants is not the sole determinative of whether or not something is worthy of contempt. (Is my deontology showing?)

So have a little sympathy.

The belief that events are determined by race is in fact racism....

No, it is not.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

A broader question for you to consider is: Why do some members of minorities immediately jump to racism as the reason behind every negative experience they have in their life?

Why do some white people immediately assume racism is never the reason behind every negative experience a minority has?