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A member of the Air Force stationed in Hawaii is getting support nationally after a woman told her it was “distasteful” to speak Spanish while in uniform.
The incident happened last month, when Xiara Mercado was at a Starbucks near Hickam Air Force Base, where she’s stationed.
Mercado, who is from Puerto Rico, said she was speaking to someone on the phone in Spanish as she was waiting for her drink.
After she left the store and was in the parking lot, a woman tapped her on the shoulder.
“You shouldn’t be speaking Spanish," the woman told Mercado, according to a post on Facebook that’s since gone viral. "That’s not what that uniform represents. It’s distasteful.”
I agree with the woman who said it was distasteful. Spanish speakers especially latin American in public speak a very grating dialect of Spanish very loudly and I find it repulsive and distasteful.
I don't blame that person for venting. Going up to someone and telling them "you shouldn't speak Spanish while in uniform, it's distasteful", that is just wrong. This is how I see it. That woman who was speaking Spanish, she is the one in uniform, serving this country. If the woman who told her "quit speaking Spanish" thinks she can do better, she needs to suit up and join the military. That woman was not only out of line, she was being an ignorant bigot.
If you gotta make ***** up, best to make it really stupid. I don't care if you speak pig latin in uniform. Why would anyone care if you speak Spanish in uniform?
There's a lot of really bored people out there who have no life. This is the result.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the offended woman turned out to have a Rachel from Friends haircut, drove an SUV with Greenpeace stickers on the bumper, and was named Karen. Busybody needs to stop listening to other people’s phone calls.
That being said, standing in line at the register is possibly the rudest place to have a phone conversation ever imagined. I have a part time retail job, and I make life hell for people who can’t bother to put their phone down and speak to the human in front of them. It seems my hearing just goes right out around active cell phones. News flash, it pisses off your fellow customers too.
If you gotta make ***** up, best to make it really stupid. I don't care if you speak pig latin in uniform. Why would anyone care if you speak Spanish in uniform?
There's a lot of really bored people out there who have no life. This is the result.
Oh there are indeed people in this country who really, really, REALLY care if you speak Spanish or any other language in this country. Want only English. So I can totally see someone thinking someone representing America in uniform should only speak English.
Never mind that there could have been military related reasons to speak Spanish. Or that Puerto Rico (where she is from) , an official US territory and thus a part of our country, has Spanish as an official language. Or that people should mind their own business and learn to ignore stuff like this.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the offended woman turned out to have a Rachel from Friends haircut, drove an SUV with Greenpeace stickers on the bumper, and was named Karen. Busybody needs to stop listening to other people’s phone calls.
That being said, standing in line at the register is possibly the rudest place to have a phone conversation ever imagined. I have a part time retail job, and I make life hell for people who can’t bother to put their phone down and speak to the human in front of them. It seems my hearing just goes right out around active cell phones. News flash, it pisses off your fellow customers too.
Basically, both of them were nitwits.
Ah, Karen seems to be everywhere these days
I'm not sure she was in the line at that point? It says she was waiting for her drink, so this may have been where she had already ordered and was just standing or sitting elsewhere in the store to wait for it.
People are so ignorant. She responded well. This is a free country and speaking Spanish on the phone she pays for is her right. She should have also told her that the military pays extra for those who speak Spanish and other foreign languages. So her Spanish serves this country well.
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