![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
racism afoot. :(
Nov. 14th, 2001 01:31 amSo I got up early, went to school, all that jazz. Spent art writing in K's book (kinda like the autograph section of a yearbook, only... bigger). Then went to the salon for a manicure and pedicure.
I am having a problem, because the woman who does my nails (we'll call her Y), who is ordinarily very nice and who I like a lot, showed a weird racist streak that I would not have suspected in her, and it made me uncomfortable, and the way I dealt with it made me even more uncomfortable.
See, my hairdresser, who is the nicest girl you'd ever want to meet and not part of all this at all, is buying the salon that they all work at. It's her lifelong dream and her parents are helping her out, since the current owner wants to retire. Nobody likes the current building, so the whole salon is moving to a new plaza that is currently being built. And my hairdresser had signed the lease before she was made aware of the Situation.
Specifically, before she signed on, apparently some Chinese women rented a space to open a nail salon. The owner has a mandate against competing businesses. So when the salon moves to the new location, the nail tech can't go... the salon can't have a manicurist. So Y is out of a job. and Y is pissed.
and this led to Y making some remarks about Chinese people who do nails... that's bad enough. But then she started to get into the "I was born here, they can't even speak English, they fire American workers, etc" and it became more of a general "those damned Chinks!" kind of speech, and I was pretty horrified. I didn't know what to say, because she's always been so nice before. Then suddenly we were back in San Francisco in 1885! "No Chinese, Irish, or Jews" in every shop and factory window.
I eventually said something along the lines of, "Well, I see your point about the sweatshop aspect, and it's true that some salons don't have good sanitary practices. but I have a lot of Asian friends and while it's unfortunate that sometimes a handful of people do fit their own worst stereotypes, most Asian people are not like that..." But I should have said more, done more. (it's hard to "stomp out" when your foot is in a pedicure bath and the "offender" is using cuticle nippers on you and your ride has the appointment *after* yours.) I just don't know what to think. I didn't want to be too firm or bitchy about it because, while I thought it was wrong of her, she wasn't doing anything to me except making me uncomfortable without realizing it. The most graceful thing I can think to do is just to not make any appointments with her after the salon moves. But ugh, what horrible ignorant things to say, and a difficult situation to be in. I am left wondering if she would be so nice and friendly to me if I were not very anglo-saxon-celtic white-looking. I am left wondering how she would treat my Korean or Indonesian friends, and if she would just assume that they were "Chinese". and whether she caught on to my displeasure, which was so gently expressed as to be almost subliminal. (I AM A WUSS.)
I am having a problem, because the woman who does my nails (we'll call her Y), who is ordinarily very nice and who I like a lot, showed a weird racist streak that I would not have suspected in her, and it made me uncomfortable, and the way I dealt with it made me even more uncomfortable.
See, my hairdresser, who is the nicest girl you'd ever want to meet and not part of all this at all, is buying the salon that they all work at. It's her lifelong dream and her parents are helping her out, since the current owner wants to retire. Nobody likes the current building, so the whole salon is moving to a new plaza that is currently being built. And my hairdresser had signed the lease before she was made aware of the Situation.
Specifically, before she signed on, apparently some Chinese women rented a space to open a nail salon. The owner has a mandate against competing businesses. So when the salon moves to the new location, the nail tech can't go... the salon can't have a manicurist. So Y is out of a job. and Y is pissed.
and this led to Y making some remarks about Chinese people who do nails... that's bad enough. But then she started to get into the "I was born here, they can't even speak English, they fire American workers, etc" and it became more of a general "those damned Chinks!" kind of speech, and I was pretty horrified. I didn't know what to say, because she's always been so nice before. Then suddenly we were back in San Francisco in 1885! "No Chinese, Irish, or Jews" in every shop and factory window.
I eventually said something along the lines of, "Well, I see your point about the sweatshop aspect, and it's true that some salons don't have good sanitary practices. but I have a lot of Asian friends and while it's unfortunate that sometimes a handful of people do fit their own worst stereotypes, most Asian people are not like that..." But I should have said more, done more. (it's hard to "stomp out" when your foot is in a pedicure bath and the "offender" is using cuticle nippers on you and your ride has the appointment *after* yours.) I just don't know what to think. I didn't want to be too firm or bitchy about it because, while I thought it was wrong of her, she wasn't doing anything to me except making me uncomfortable without realizing it. The most graceful thing I can think to do is just to not make any appointments with her after the salon moves. But ugh, what horrible ignorant things to say, and a difficult situation to be in. I am left wondering if she would be so nice and friendly to me if I were not very anglo-saxon-celtic white-looking. I am left wondering how she would treat my Korean or Indonesian friends, and if she would just assume that they were "Chinese". and whether she caught on to my displeasure, which was so gently expressed as to be almost subliminal. (I AM A WUSS.)
