Does it matter if it was racially intended or not? To me its mean and rude either way and the customer should be ashamed of his/herself.
God, what an ass! I know how bad your daughter feels, and it’s sad that this is going to taint her retail experience (even more than it probably already was).
I wish I lived close to where your daughter works. I’d walk up to her register casually and say, “You people are so NICE, SMART, and COMPETENT!”, just to see what she’d do.
Along those lines, recounted here. The brief story of my wife’s aunt and them.
I don’t know…I think if she had said “people like you” then you could give her the benefit of the doubt. “People like you are too stupid to run a cash register” perhaps, or “people like you are poorly trained and can’t help me with my problem” maybe. But using “you people” strikes me as targeting a well-known group, like “you black people” or “you teenagers”.
In Chicago, it is not necessarily a racial slur, though it could certainly be used that way. But I wouldn’t automtically assume it. Also, the fact that her daughter is normally a wonderful person doesn’t mean she couldn’t make a mistake, have a bad day, or what have you. It’s the holiday season and most clerks are running their asses off to keep up with the traffic. It’s hard to be perfect under that kind of pressure.
How can you not know what race someone is? Most Americans are pretty easy to peg race-wise, especially when it comes to the black-white dichotomy that has defined Americans for centuries. You know you can still be non-racist and be able to identity racial characteristics.
In the context of the OP, I’m certain that “you people” was a reference to race. Notice how in your examples, you qualify your references? Would you really walk up to a cell phone driver and say, “You people”? Or would you say “you people who drive while talking on cellphones”? That’s what makes the customer’s remark racial, IMHO. “You people” is reserved for racial/ethnic minorities…their “differentness” is so pronounced it needs no follow-up descriptors.
But as hawksgirl said, it does not matter. The customer was rude regardless of her meaning.
Agreed. But simple rudeness vs. a verbal racial attack are two different things. If it was intended as a racial slur, it’s a LOT worse.
Racism is like really cheap tequila - not all that much fun to begin with, but the hangover is even worse.
Trouble is, the aforementioned bitch didn’t seem to offer any subsets. I agree with posters above, I have used "you people"as a generic without ever specifying any type of people, and probably couldn’t, outside of “assholes” and “bitches”. So your daughter has no way of knowing if it is a racial slur, an “age” slur, or just a non-specific indictment of an unqualified generality.
Remind your daughter that while many people may have an objection to her complexion, damn near everybody hates us folks what are smart and good-looking, and that is a cross she will have to learn to bear, just like her Mom did.
Right. But it could be either one! Why automatically assume it’s a racial thing and not a teenage slacker thing?
If she were wearing gold earrings, the customer might have been talking about “wearers of gold earrings”, too.
Seriously, though. Who’s ever referred to teenagers as “you people”. Maybe “you kids” or “you teenagers”, but not “you people”.
Well, you might want to be careful about it if you’re speaking to a member of a minority group. I believe you when you say that you personally don’t use “You People” as a code for race, but it certainly is used that way by many folks; I’ve heard them do it. (Being white myself, what I’m more likely to hear is the third-person variant “Those People”, when some asshole who thinks I share his/her racist views tries to have a coy little gossip with me about how awful “Those People” are.)
So be aware that if you say to a black or Latino person who cuts ahead of you in line “You people just don’t have any manners, do you?”, even though you mean “You Line-Cutters”, the recipient (and anyone else who hears you) may well interpret it to mean “You Blacks” or “You Latinos”, and hostility could ensue.
No, it’s not fair that you might be perceived as a racist when you didn’t intend any racism. But people tend to hear what you say instead of what you mean, and if what you say is a phrase widely used as a covert racial slur, lots of people are going to hear it that way.
To me, no it doesn’t. I was just trying to point out that even based on the OP’s telling of the event that there are a number of possibilities and that we shouldn’t be jumping to the conclusion that it was racist. I heartily agree that it was quite rude and whatever the intent that customer was being a complete and total bitch.
She may have been referring to anyone who ever worked in that particular store. I have a “you people” attitude about COMCAST CABLE, for instance.
I agree. It is insensitive to use a multi-use dis toward someone who could take it as a racial slur, but it IS unfair to automatically assume the worst when there are other options.
Eggs Ackley.
I am on record in this thread as saying it is not *necessarily *a racial slur; only that it is more often than not. Much more often, if the truth be told.
“Making a mistake” is hardly justification for the cusomer’s rant. Who said she was perfect? Is it not obvious to everyone that the ‘holiday season’ is upon us? What would compell a customer to tee off on a clerk when most of the clerks “are running their asses off to keep up with the traffic”?
It stretches credulity to assume that she was complaining about the general level of service in a time when it is assumed that the general level of service is compromised, and to complain in such a way as to assume fault to Biggirl’s daughter simply because of her inclusion in a (purposefully unspecified) group.
I’m not making excuses for the customer’s behavior. I see people go off on clerks all the time. That doesn’t mean the customer is racist. She would have gone off on whoever was waiting on her, as she was obviously pissed off about something in that transaction. You think she wouldn’t have expressed rage to a white clerk?
But you don’t say how awful “you Comcast people” are when you’re on the phone with them, do you? You, unlike this woman, probably have enough courtesy and self-restraint to keep from doing that.
Well, I’m pale and white like a fish belly, and generally clueless about these things, but I would have interpreted “you people” to mean “you BLACK people”.
Had I been another customer, I would have asked the woman for clarification. I realize that it’s easy to post that sort of thing on a message board, but those of you who know me will know that I actually AM that bitchy.
In any case BigGril - tell your daughter to keep her chin up - Christmas is a shitty time of year.
When I’m ranting against a group, I’ll be specific. So if I’m ranting against Comcast, I’d say “you Comcast people”. In the OP’s example, I’d say “You store people” or “You employees” or–if I’m feeling really fired up, “You Limited people!”*
But just “you people”? Uh-uh.
*not that I’d ever do such a thing. I might say “those people” but not “you people”. That’s just begging for a fight.
Hey Biggirl. Tell your daughter that the customer was a dumbass idiot whose opinion is worthless. Tell her that her college degree will (hopefully) put her in a position where such behavior is not tolerated; or, failing that, not as prevalent. Tell that this crusty old white geezer wishes her well, and that our future depends on todays’s children overcoming the burdens of the past.
It is a hard row to hoe …