General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: White DUers: Tell Your Stories [View all]meadowlander
(4,395 posts)Although I'll caveat it by saying I don't feel in any way that I am oppressed or discriminated against as a result of being white, I do have experiences of people prejudging or targeting me because of my skin color, of being a minority and having people make fun of me which, obviously, feels like crap and made me really angry which is why I try not to do it to anyone else.
When I was in college, I worked in a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood. I mostly worked at the customer service desk with another girl the same age as me who was black. We would sometimes have customers come in who would refuse to be served by me and insisted on only talking to the other girl. In one case she asked me a question about how to do something on the cash register and I responded and the customer said "Bitch, nobody asked your white ass" and then looked at the other girl for support. The other girl glared at her, gave her her change and after she left said it really pissed her off when people assumed that she would agree with their racist shit just because of the color of her skin. Then she told me several times that she had had customers make comments about me behind my back to her and that she never agreed with them. I was only about 18 or 19 at the time and it never really occurred to me that people would be that shitty for no reason to someone who was only being polite and trying to help them but I felt really glad that my friend had my back.
At the same store, I was once working at the cash register when an older black woman went up to the customer service desk and insisted that I had flipped her off and called her a racist slur when I was ringing her up. She was insisting that she should get her groceries for free because I was racist. I'd been worked there for two years at that point and everyone knew I wasn't and that she was just scamming for free groceries but it annoyed me that there were at least seven registers open and that she decided to accuse the only white cashier.
I don't really give a shit if people want to use "wypipo" but I don't think it's particularly helpful or constructive. It's not the same as slurs directed at minorities who are actually oppressed but it is mean spirited in its intent and unnecessary. And it fuels the persecution complex of some white people instead of making anything better.