"Prejudiced" comment, or just trying to be accommodating? (Milwaukee: neighborhood, school)

[Master Jay]

Hello, city-data.com community. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I enjoy the thoughts subscribers share. I'm willing to hear some thoughts: Today, en route to Chicago, my children and I stopped at a Burger King in Racine, off of the expressway. We ordered our food and then waited aside, near the drink machine. I speak Spanish with my children, so I had a conversation with one of my daughters in Spanish...A worker who was cleaning tables said to me, in English: We also have picante sauce if you like... I answered in English: Ok. Thank you.... Then she went behind the counter to where they prepare the food, and said: you can also get jalapeno peppers on your burgers. I replied again in English: Ok. Thanks again... so what do you think???

[katharsis]

Of course, I cannot speak for all Wisconsites, but I strongly suspect that they were just being friendly!

We have made about four trips to the state (and are retiring there next year), and the people there are just unbelievably friendly and nice. (In fact, I made a thread with a title something like, "I think Wisconsites might be the friendliest state in the U.S.") And, I firmly believe that they are genuinely nice!

Here is a Youtube video you might enjoy, and as one of the comments said, "This is not comedy, this is a documentary!"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHISDsmSsDg&t=50s

[MortonR]

Knowing the areas as I do, I would opine that they were being nice while being ignorant, and I don't mean that in a critical or disparaging way. Some people have little exposure to other cultures, and the mainstream media isn't always the best teacher in this regard, either, since it often perpetuates such misunderstandings.

I am a very white person, but I speak and understand Spanish fluently and understand several other languages while not being conversant in them. I've found that this tends to get some people in trouble at times, as they make an assumption that I don't understand foreign languages. For example:

There were two Hispanic women in my office. They often spoke together in Spanish, and in many cases were saying disparaging things about the other non-Latina women in the office. I took one of them aside one day shortly after she had just walked away from one of these gossip sessions with her "buddy" and told her she might want to be more careful about what she said about coworkers in the office, as you never know who might overhear you. I turned and walked away, while making a comment in perfect Spanish that she would know wasn't something I just picked up or had been rehearsing.

Needless to say she appeared to be quite shocked, and I never saw or heard any more of these gossip session in the office.

RM

[Master Jay]

MortonR, GREAT story. Thank you for sharing! Gracias por compartir!

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

MortonR, GREAT story. Thank you for sharing! Gracias por compartir!

Another if I may:

In my former career I traveled all over the world for a major Wisconsin corporation conducting technical training for our customers and end users. We sometimes hosted the training at our headquarters in Wisconsin.

On one such occasion I had a very diverse group of customers, mostly domestic, but a few from outside the country. Two of them happened to be from Israel, from our distributor in Tel-Aviv. These two gentlemen spoke in Hebrew to each other throughout the training. Not only was it rude, but it was distracting to me as a teacher.

Now I just happen to have a decent understanding of Hebrew as I grew up in a neighborhood of German Jews and often attended temple with my friends, much to the chagrin of my very Catholic mother. As an aside, I was always upset that going to temple with my friends on Saturday didn't "count" for Sunday Mass. But - I digress.

I wasn't close enough that I could hear their comments, however, sitting next to them was a customer from Argentina, Heime, who I knew well and had visited on several occasions. He approached me on the second day of training to let me know that these two "clowns" (as he referred to them) were saying disparaging things about the company, the training, the facilities, etc., etc. You see, Heime attended Hebrew school as a young boy and despite being born and raised in Argentina spoke fluent Hebrew.

"Wait until they leave and I'll toss them a zinger", Heime tells me.

So Friday rolls around with these two having made their commentary throughout the week uninterrupted. They have to leave at the afternoon break to catch their flight. As they get up to leave, Heime turns to them and says something in Hebrew that would have clearly indicated his understanding and fluency.

You could see the color drain out of their faces. They left in quite a hurry.

When I arrived at my desk on Monday morning there was a fax from the Israelis. It was a page long glowing approbation of the training, facilities, food, etc., etc. The real highlight of the whole thing was that they had sent it on Saturday, no doubt the minute they returned.

RM

[Milwaukee City]

As a white man with Indian relatives and a ton of hispanic friends, I can speak a little too, and often I will speak it to someone of say Polish or Indian or Mexican or Puerto Rican descent. When I first read your story I kept waiting for the punchine, I read it again, and again and I thought what am I missing here, what's the big deal? now I get it. I suspect that they were just being friendly or nice, I wear a lot of Polish Pride shirts and I always get comments and never once did I think of it as a slight towards my people.



I wouldn't worry.

[germaine2626]

Unless their tone was rude and condescending, IMHO, they were trying to be helpful and nice to you. Most Burger Kings do not have those two things and they wanted you to aware that they were available at their restaurant (if you wanted them).

[Teacher Terry]

I grew up in Kenosha. They were just being nice.

[Master Jay]

Milwaukee City, germaine2626 and Teacher Terry, good day. Thank you for sharing. It's one of those uncertainties. I feel if I worked at a restaurant and I heard someone with a certain ethnic look and overheard a language, imagine if I thought they were Chinese clients, and I just walked up to them and asked them if they wanted me to see if we had SOY SAUCE...what if they responded: yes we are Chinese, but that doesn't mean we LIKE soy sauce.... or what if they responded: ummm, we are Korean and thanks but we don't need a special Asian sauce because of it!... it's a touchy subject, I think. I may have meant well, but still possibly come across as ignorant for ASSUMING!... My truth is: I was not offended at Burger King. I feel she was using her best judgment to be extra accommodating. And I said: thank you.... but I could see how others could have mistaken the gesture.. thats why I asked for other's opinions. So thank YOU!

[Milwaukee City]

It also depends which fast food place you go to, for some odd reason Taco Bell and Wendys is always asking me if I want this sauce or this other sauce on foods that don't often come with those sauces and I think to myself, who is putting these weird sauces on their food. So I chalk it up to the people taking the order like those sauces with their food. I once was asked do you want hot sauce with your chicken strips? I said no, then they asked if I wanted ranch? and I thought what the hell is going on at this Culvers.