Real life dilemma
 

I recently started volunteering at the Citizens Advice Bureau and am in the process of training right now. In my initial interview I was asked a series of questions, one of them being "what would you do if you found a client saying something racist in the waiting room?". I answered "I would approach that person and tell them what they are saying would offend some people". To my relief, they said that was pretty much their general policy.

This morning while on break with the smokers, we started bitching about how much we hated British public transport (one of my favourite pastimes). One of my new colleagues remarked "I'm not prejudiced or anything, but being on the bus the other day was like being on the Delhi express". I didn't think much about it at the time, but now I feel rather bad for at least not challenging her on this. The thing is, I feel like I know her type. Really coarse and contemptuous of political correctness. All the same, it sounded pretty racist to me. The "I'm not racist, but..." prefix aside, why is the fact that you are on a bus with a bunch of Asians a cause for complaint? I know it is probably more ignorance than malice, but I'll probably say something to her next time.

If she was referring to the ethnicity of those surrounding her rather than the number (though I'm not sure where on Earth my idea that Indian trains are very overcrowded has come from) then it's a bit suspect.

It wouldnt bother me being on a bus full of Asians at all.

But at the same time, I doubt I would say anything to her. Was probably just meant as a joke or something, it doesn't sound intentionally racist.

I'm surprised staff at the CAB even get training from my experiences there. The one here is rubbish and noone knows what the hell they are talking about and are very very rude and patronising :eek:

I was thinking about it being busy too, maybe thats what she meant?

Do you live in a heavily populated Asian area?

I would assume he/she was refering to the amount of people on the bus as well.

Most of the North is.

Ouch, really? Well each branch of the CAB is independently run so I figured each one would be different, but that's quite a shock. The training period at East Durham CAB (Peterlee) lasts about four months. They're quite thorough with it and it's just as well as some of them, the debt advisors especially, have a difficult job on their hands.

Yeah, it was really just a throwaway comment I suppose, but I have a bad habit of ruminating over throwaway comments.

True

She prefaced her comment with "I'm not prejudiced, but..." so it seemed pretty unambiguous to me.

Far from it. Maybe the odd suburb in the cities, which is where I assume she must have been. The far North is pure hicksville which goes a long way in explaining why coming into contact with minorities or immigrant feels strange to a lot of the residents here.

Peterlee isnt actualy too far away from mine. Mines on chester le street front st.

I never knew it was just volunteers there though, I figured it was a paid job. Which may explain why the staff at mine seem so half arsed about everything :S

I went about council tax debt, that was not mine, I had paid my half when I split up with a previous partner, but because they could not find him to charge him, they charged me AGAIN. I was told by the CAB that it was my fault for not paying the full lot at the time (which I did...my share, but it was split and the council agreed to that when I payed it)...when I pointed out that I paid what I owed straight away, the person I was speaking to then told me how 'stupid' I was for not getting written agreement with the council over this (I was 18 at the time of paying the bill...so I didnt exactly know that the council would lie to me :rolleyes:) and that since I was the one at fault, they couldnt help me. Then 'Sorry we are busy right now, if you wish to talk about this further, make another appointment'

Never again. I nearly hit him.

Oh right, well it's hard to tell anything these days. Casual racism has become the norm these days and most people seem to just laugh it off.

That's really really bad practice and goes against the CAB's principles. They are meant to be completely impartial and non-judgemental, while remaining on the side of the client. Why not try another Durham branch? As I said, each of them are independent and run on their own terms. They will be happy to help out as long as you live within the same local authority.

Yeah maybe.

If I have any other problems I will. With this one, I have just payed the money back. Or rather AM paying. 5 years later...its just so stupid. I even found an address for my ex, but the council wont follow it up...obviously because I'm the mug who is paying it when its not my debt and they dont want to create more work for themselves :rolleyes:

depends what type of asians they are

if it was bus full of taleban lookalikes that not much fun

but if it was bus full of japanese schoolgirls that would make a nice journey :thumbs:

I think it's a case of ignorance more than racism.
But I agree with Inone, casual racism seems to be excepted these days sadly.
i will give you an example,my family have been living in Ireland for 11yrs..we run a small business,employ 14.
Last week I was dropping off a job pack to one of our employees (Irish) lovely lad working for us for 8 yrs.Across the road from his home I noticed a lady( black) sitting on the green area playing with her children.When he came out of his home ans saw this woman he rolled up his eyes and said "whats going on ,are they setting up camp,wish they would fcuk off back to Africa"
As I myself is from SA(white) I told him if we were all to fcuk off back to Africa where was he going to get a job.
he was immediately apologetic but not for his remark just for the fact that I saw my family included in that remark.He was saying "Oh no, I didn't mean you,you are different ,you know that" I asked why was I different,because I was white?He told me no ,it was because I haven't come over here to sponge off the system.My two youngest were in the car so I left it at that .But the fact is ,she may not even been from Africa,she may have been Irish,she may have never have claimed benefits and could of been a doctor,but he just judged her on appearance.sadly I am seeing this more and more these days.
On the funny side,English is not my first language,it's Afrikaans,so in the last 18 months whilst out shopping I have been told to fcuk off back to Poland 3 times.I've never been to eastern Europe LMAO

i agree with the comments that it was a statement about the NUMBER of people on the train, not about the RACE/ETHNICITY of the passengers.

India is the second largest country in the world by population, and they do have many overcrowded trains.

I don't think it was racist and if i were you in that situation i wouldn't have said anything eigther.

i think we should always assume the best in people. So i would choose to believe that this woman was not being racist.

Two posts I made on this thread were deleted.
I hardly visit Serious Debates, then this happens.

Aw~ The story of my life,,,,,,,,,,,,,.:( (quotation: Smithy.)