For something that's been around for so fucking long,
it still has quite an effect on society today. For the
longest time, I've wondered why people let racial
slurs and shit get under their skin (No pun intended.
I'm pretty fuckin' far from laughing.).

Finally experiencing it first hand pretty much
answered my question.

For me it was just a surprise. Outta nowhere. I was at
work, wrapping up for the night since bar rush was
pretty much dead. Doin' the usual shit of cleaning the
doors, blah blah blah, then started on my way back
into the restaurant to finish up. That's when I ran
into the social sucker-punch of racism... in the form
of a friendly regular.

I tried to engage in simple chitter-chatter with the
probably 60+ year old man as I reached for a menu. He
started acting catty, which threw me off, and when I
finally got to the point and asked him he he wanted
smoking or non-smoking, he simply, bluntly responded,

"Fuck Yuh."

... Right. At that point I put down the menus and went
about my business of wrapping up... Mistake number
one. I should have found myself somewhere else.

One of the servers -finally- made their way over to
seat the asshole, and he willingly obliged. That is,
until he started complaining about me.

"Ah wuz standin' here fer fifteen fuckin minutes an'
this bastard din't wait on me. That Iranian peice of
shit ain't wurth a shit." He then turns to me directly
and says,"I'm gunna beat yer ass. You'll get yours.
I'm gonna kick yer ass."

For the record, I am not Iranian. I'm a lot of black,
quite a bit of Native American, a little Asian,
possibly a smidgeon of French, and maybe some more.
But I'm sure I can safely say that I have no drop of
Iranian blood in my body. What's funny is that I
wasn't only offended, I was also annoyed at this guy's
ignorance.

"The hell did I do?!" was my response/question, and
also Mistake number two. I should have walked away and
grabbed a manager, or at least just walked away.

Finally this guy started making his way to his fucking
seat, and the manager wandered over to ask me what
happened. The man makes a U-turn and heads back to the
register to complain some more, still saying I'm
useless and that I'm "uh Iranian piece of shit". They
both got into a shouting match that resulted in Jeremy
(I'm tired of typing "the manager") calling the cops.

The guy left after a bit of coaxing from his wife, but
she remained to complain about my "attitude" on their
last several visits, which was shot to hell when she
mentioned "Every time we come here on weekdays, he's
rude to us." Wups, I only work there on weekends.
Attempt to get me fired failed.

So, the old raging bitch and his nagging wife left,
and I was left with the tension of a rubber band on
the verge of breaking. The police pull in, and I let
Jeremy do the talking. It might have been Mistake
number three, but the fact that I was seeing red
wouldn't have allowed me to press charges without
breaking something.

What have I learned from this experience? I've learned
that it isn't just knowing the fact that racism exists
that bothers people, but -not- knowing where it will
come from. Generalization blows, and I'm trying very
hard not to forget that not everyone is like the
people I've encountered tonight.

But it's getting harder every day.

I've decided to look for another job, and as soon as I
have one in stone, I'm putting in my two weeks...
IF... I don't walk out first. I have enough stress and
frustration in my life. I don't plan on adding
anymore.

I'm. Fucking. Done.