Paranoia or Racism ?

memphisto · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:18

Got to say that the title might be a bit of sensationalism but after reading a few of the muslim threads and partaking in a lot of race based debates in here, I had my views and was tbh rather encapsulated in them. but tongiht a single event occurred which is either

A: Me being paranoid
B: Racism

Now let me set the scene, I am in a well known superstore doing my shopping as with everyone else. I get to the tills, my immediate reaction whenever reaching the tills is to go to the queue which has the least peope in it.

so I look and there is between 3-4 people in most queues at first glance, except for one where a lady is just paying, so I up the pace wanting to get there faster than anyone else as you do. Anyway I get there and start unloading my shopping (about 10 items) speak to the guy behind the till, normal chit chat, hows ya day going etc etc. anyway I go to put the plastic thing down to show my shoppings finished expecting someone else to jump on. anyway little bit more chit chat I carry on and pack my bags etc, as I'm paying I look around and if anything the queues at other tills have got longer but no one else has joined my queue.

Then this happens twice, a 25-30 year old lady gets to the end of the till, looks at the checkout looks around again and joins a longer queue ?

then finally as I am leaving and the checkout guy is the only one who doesnt have anyone in his queue another customer looks at his queue, at him, then looks around then almost shrugs as if to say "well I'll have to go down that one theres no other choice"

the difference between the checkouts ? the guy that served me, perfectly pleasant and friendly was a coloured guy / possibly a muslim, 99.9% (of the shop and everyone I saw walk away were white.)

This sorta thing hasnt struck me or been as blatantly noticeable to me till now. maybe I am being paranoid, hell its only a checkout queue, but unless everyone else in the shop wanted to be served by a friend / family member they knew, at the till I was quite shocked to say the least, almost to the point I wanted to ask a supervisor if it was a regular occurence (it was that obvious what was happening)

has anyone else noticed things like this or am I being paranoid ?

Vanilla · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:21

I havn't noticed this no. This is probably because every single checkout person at my local Tesco is Asian.

I mean every.single.one

DB_SamX · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:23

I can't say that I have noticed that before in any of the supermarkets in Southampton. Maybe it has got something to do with where you live and if there is a certain tension between races?

memphisto · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:24

DB_SamX said:
I can't say that I have noticed that before in any of the supermarkets in Southampton. Maybe it has got something to do with where you live and if there is a certain tension between races?

well it was just outside of stockton up near middlesbrough, cant say I know of any tension but I also dont live over that way, was posted over there for the day and did some shopping on the way home.

SidewinderINC · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:26

take a clip board in, and monitor the shop to see if it happens everyday!

i'd like to think it was a little from choice A and a little from choice B really - but who knows!

VIRII · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:30

Sounds like racism to me, might be because he was a bloke though.

shifty_uk · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:35

I've never seen anything as bad as that in a shop before. People don't usually mind who's serving.

This might be slightly off topic but, a wee while back it was my works day out(we went up north), and we were told to be in the studio for 8 oclock. I got there pretty early, around 7:40 and decided to go to the news agents around the corner.
I was surprised to find that they were actually open at this time. Anyway, after getting what I was after, I stood in the queue while a lady infront of me was getting served. While getting served she said something along the lines of "oh my, you guys are open very early". She proceeded to say things like "you guys are really dedicated and hard working" etc, then just as she was leaving she said something like "your good hard working people, I wish you all the best, and hope you become millionaires".

Now, me trying to explain that makes the customer infront of me sound a bit nuts, but she actually looked like a lawyer or something and I thought it was a very nice thing to say.

[edit]Forgot to mention, the people working in the shop were muslim(by the looks of it) and the customer was white.

Visage · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:45

memphisto said:
Got to say that the title might be a bit of sensationalism but after reading a few of the muslim threads and partaking in a lot of race based debates in here, I had my views and was tbh rather encapsulated in them. but tongiht a single event occurred which is either

A: Me being paranoid
B: Racism

Now let me set the scene, I am in a well known superstore doing my shopping as with everyone else. I get to the tills, my immediate reaction whenever reaching the tills is to go to the queue which has the least peope in it.

so I look and there is between 3-4 people in most queues at first glance, except for one where a lady is just paying, so I up the pace wanting to get there faster than anyone else as you do. Anyway I get there and start unloading my shopping (about 10 items) speak to the guy behind the till, normal chit chat, hows ya day going etc etc. anyway I go to put the plastic thing down to show my shoppings finished expecting someone else to jump on. anyway little bit more chit chat I carry on and pack my bags etc, as I'm paying I look around and if anything the queues at other tills have got longer but no one else has joined my queue.

Then this happens twice, a 25-30 year old lady gets to the end of the till, looks at the checkout looks around again and joins a longer queue ?

then finally as I am leaving and the checkout guy is the only one who doesnt have anyone in his queue another customer looks at his queue, at him, then looks around then almost shrugs as if to say "well I'll have to go down that one theres no other choice"

the difference between the checkouts ? the guy that served me, perfectly pleasant and friendly was a coloured guy / possibly a muslim, 99.9% (of the shop and everyone I saw walk away were white.)

This sorta thing hasnt struck me or been as blatantly noticeable to me till now. maybe I am being paranoid, hell its only a checkout queue, but unless everyone else in the shop wanted to be served by a friend / family member they knew, at the till I was quite shocked to say the least, almost to the point I wanted to ask a supervisor if it was a regular occurence (it was that obvious what was happening)

has anyone else noticed things like this or am I being paranoid ?

It seems like strange behaviour...

All i'd say is this - if someone suggested that you were racist because of your choice of queue, i'd imagine you'd be at the very least confused, and quite possibly offended (with good reason).

So to speculate as to the motives behind someone elses motives is skating on thin ice. Im not saying you shouldnt speculate, but be wary of accusing people of things that any reasonable person would find offensive, when there may be a simpler explanation - or it might even be pure chance

stigggeh · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:48

thats very strange and can honestly say i have never seen that happen, but i live in middlesbrough, they are all strange in stockton

i have no idea tbh... maybe the other shoppers are 'daily mail' readers

.

memphisto · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:50

Visage said:
It seems like strange behaviour...

All i'd say is this - if someone suggested that you were racist because of your choice of queue, i'd imagine you'd be at the very least confused, and quite possibly offended (with good reason).

So to speculate as to the motives behind someone elses motives is skating on thin ice. Im not saying you shouldnt speculate, but be wary of accusing people of things that any reasonable person would find offensive, when there may be a simpler explanation - or it might even be pure chance

see sig

(no offence purely in jest)

starscream · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:50

stigggeh said:
i have no idea tbh... maybe the other shoppers are 'daily mail' readers .

Or maybe the aisle that was empty was stocked up with the Guardian

Visage · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:54

memphisto said:
see sig

(no offence purely in jest)

Maybe i was being too long winded in my efforts not to be misinterpreted, and to avoid the 'one line comment' police.

To be blunt (and its not meant to offend anyone, so no-one should take it to heart).

If someone suggested that *your* choice of queue was racist then you'd be VERY angry, so one be wary of suggesting it of others.

VIRII · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:57

Visage said:
If someone suggested that *your* choice of queue was racist then you'd be VERY angry, so one be wary of suggesting it of others.

Calling little girls who dress badly racist chavs is ok though, as is calling daily mail readers racists........
Are you bi-polar?

VIRII · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:58

Visage said:
Maybe i was being too long winded in my efforts not to be misinterpreted, and to avoid the 'one line comment' police.

Just put them on ignore then ...... rofl

Van_Dammesque · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:41

Maybe some insight:
Well I sometimes change to queues that are long for one of two reasons:
1. the person at the till is quicker (based purely on experience since I shop at local store nearly everyday) so I will be served earlier than being served by another person on a different till.

2. one person in a queue could have a trolly full, whereas several people maybe only have one or two items so I will be served quicker.

Oh yes, I process ALL the possibilites so I can get served quicker :eek:

stigggeh · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:44

Van_Dammesque said:
Maybe some insight:
Well I sometimes change to queues that are long for one of two reasons:
1. the person at the till is quicker (based purely on experience since I shop at local store nearly everyday) so I will be served earlier than being served by another person on a different till.

2. one person in a queue could have a trolly full, whereas several people maybe only have one or two items so I will be served quicker.

Oh yes, I process ALL the possibilites so I can get served quicker

come to think of it... a few times i have went to a till which has only had one person, just to be told "sorry i have finnished now this is my last person join another"

nealw · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:50

I know this is slightly OT, anyways..

I was in the local Tesco Metro last night, picked up a copy of Mens Health off the shelf, all well and good.

Got to checkout 'woman' who ended up being some horrendous looking, ginger haired, gene deficient, degenerate who thought it appropriate to say "Mens Health 'ey?" followed by a smirk, to which i responded "Yeah, and...". "Well... you know... there's nothing wrong with it i guess... if you like looking at men with little clothes on"

I was like :confused:

Since when was mens health considered to be remotely gay? The best comment i could come up with on the spot being as I was still amazed at this point was "I'm sorry, I must have given you the impression that I actually care what you think, now can you please put my groceries in the bag and not talk to me any more."

Grrrr, makes me mad thinking about it :mad:

Efour · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:54

maybe people were buying lots of pork products and are so well trained in the arts of political correctness that they didnt want to offend the possible 99.9% muslim gent?

Efour · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:56

nealw said:
Since when was mens health considered to be remotely gay?

Hmm no comment

Visage · 14 Oct 2006 at 00:57

nealw said:
I know this is slightly OT, anyways..

I was in the local Tesco Metro last night, picked up a copy of Mens Health off the shelf, all well and good.

Got to checkout 'woman' who ended up being some horrendous looking, ginger haired, gene deficient, degenerate who thought it appropriate to say "Mens Health 'ey?" followed by a smirk, to which i responded "Yeah, and...". "Well... you know... there's nothing wrong with it i guess... if you like looking at men with little clothes on"

I was like Since when was mens health considered to be remotely gay? The best comment i could come up with on the spot being as I was still amazed at this point was "I'm sorry, I must have given you the impression that I actually care what you think, now can you please put my groceries in the bag and not talk to me any more."

Grrrr, makes me mad thinking about it

I know. How disgusting to judge someone in such a small amount of info.....

....Almost as disgusting as referring to another human being as 'some horrendous looking, ginger haired, gene deficient, degenerate'......