So apparently Delta Airlines is in some hot water after the internets circulated rumours that Jews are not allowed to fly into Saudi Arabia: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/saudi-arabia-denies-discriminating-against-jewish-passengers-1.369733" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/sau ... s-1.369733</a> The argument being that Saudi Arabian Air should not be a member of Sky Alliance since they practice discrimination towards who may and may not enter their country. There are two flaws with this argument: 1) Israel does the same thing. 2) Saudi Arabia (and Israel) are sovereign nations. If they decide that only blue-haired white people under the age of 30 may enter, then that’s their right as an independent state. Focus: Have you ever been discriminated against for anything? Age? Race? Gender? Alt. Focus: What should Delta’s response be?
Sack O Balls speaks the truth here. My brother in law is 6'4" and was a track and field guy for LSU (so you can imagine his body type). He also has a touch of the monkey arms. It is very difficult to find clothes that fit him. El Fiance is 6'8" and played basketball his whole life. Again, you can imagine the body type. Sometimes we can find pants to fit him at Old Navy. His waist is 36-38 and the length is their extra extra longs. Shirts are kind of depressing, because he either swims in them or the sleeves look tiny and ridiculous. Big and Tall stores are a joke, because like you say, they are big AND tall. Not or. Alt Focus: I guess I'm not clear on international rules. Delta is an American company. They can be held to certain standards in this country, but what are the technical rules about them doing shady shit in other countries where it is legal? I guess it is allowed. I mean, think about sweatshops and oil companies. Many companies get away with stuff to some extent.
I've been discriminated against and refused service for apparently being "too drunk". Some fucking bartenders can be so judgemental.
So... I'm not sure I see the logic in this. Why would Delta fly a passenger to the country if they're going to be denied entrance? Doesn't it make more sense to stop it prior to the money and time spent getting over there? Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the discriminatory practices, but if the country has a policy of non-entry for whatever reason, isn't it in everyone's best interests that passengers not be denied access to the country after traveling there?
I've been discriminated against in job interviews, college admissions, and scholarships all because I was white.
I'm an intelligent, middle class white guy in my early 20's, raised in the south. Probably the only instance in which I've ever been discriminated against was applying to college. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS, Y'ALL. Agreed, being big and tall sucks dick when it comes to buying clothes. I was recently in the market for a couple of new blazers, and NOWHERE carried my size (50L). Normal stores stopped at 48, big and tall stores started at 52, and when I did finally track down three blazers that I liked AND fit in the shoulders, I had to make plans to get them tailored because the rest of the suit I was swimming in. Buying a suit off the rack is almost impossible, as most suits are a six inch drop (ex: if you wear a 42R, the corresponding pants would be a 36in waist). I'm a 12in drop, and in what seems to be a conspiracy by the clothing companies of the world against me, no one who makes a jacket my size seems to want to sell corresponding pants in my size ("but our sister store 45min away will, want us to hold them for you?") Same thing with jeans. I have to buy two sizes too big for my ass and my thighs, then hope that I don't ever forget to wear a belt, otherwise they'll start to fall off. Shoes? I wear a size 16 so, unless I'm in a specialty store or online, the only things I ever find in my size are pink crocodile pimp loafers, early 2000's basketball shoes, or Crocs. It's really difficult being a handsome giant. Give me your sympathies, all of them.
Just yesterday, I asked an African-American employee at Wal-Mart where the Saltines were, and he said, "In the cracker aisle."
Weird. I thought this thread was an email from the country club I belong to. The TiB looks too much like Outlook sometimes. Carry on.
I find it astonishing how people (as in full-grown adults) can still treat a person with cerebral palsy like they're mentally retarded. My one friend has CP and by that, he's in a motorized wheelchair. We treat him like one of us a.k.a we constantly insult and badger him, because that's what guy friends do to each other. He doesn't get it better or worse than any of us. Whenever somebody in public witnesses this, they do everything from taddle-tale on bouncers "For making fun of the handicapped guy" to actually pick fights with us. Then, they treat him like an imbecile, bending down to talk to him "on his level" and other assorted shit that always pisses him off. He usually just slurs "Fuck off, I'm drinking" at them, which ALWAYS cracks us up. Always.
It's the wheelchair. My brother is paralyzed and we've been dealing with this for YEARS. People (strangers) act one of two ways: they're either oblivious that the guy in the wheelchair needs them to get the fuck out of the way so he can get by or they back away, eyes wide like he's a communicable disease on wheels. A couple years ago he was on the phone with a girl and she overheard me call him a cripple and fucking flipped - being the "over protector", she didn't last long.
Not to pile on.... But I've had similar experiences. A couple years ago I was living in STL and we'd always get shitty standing room only seats at Card games so we were closer to the beer lines.. One time we were having a good time getting drunk, and it so happened that there was a kid in a wheelchair with some sort of disability. As I got to talking to him and his friend, it turned out that it was his 21st birthday...... So I bought him a couple overpriced Budweisers, and we got drunk together. I gave that kid shit for 6 solid innings, just tearing into him, telling him just because he had palsy it didn't give him any excuse to spill nacho cheese all down the front of that Bic Mac jersey he was sporting. Motherfucker had a ball. And so did I. A couple of fringe lefty friends had a fucking shitfit after the game. Telling me that I was inconsiderate, and making fun of his handicap, when in essence I was just treating him like one of the guys. The same thing happened years ago when I was in Melbourne getting drunk in a pub and I got chummy with some fat chicks and a Qiwi. They invited me to a comedy show, and there was a comedian headlining, that had Palsy. I think his name was Steady Eddy,,,, or something or another. As we got to the show late, we ended up getting the worst possible seats. Right in the front row, and per the usual,,, he starts ripping on my American ass. After about 10 minutes of this shit, I start giving it back to him. I can't remember what the fuck I said, but it was something about that even though I came from America and drank shitty American beer, I could still buy a pint at the bar, make it all the way to my seat, and drink it without spilling half of it on the floor like him. And I did it while pantomiming like a drunken dude with palsy... And the fucking room just went dead. Coulda heard a pin drop in there, and there was easily 150 people there. Now I thought I crossed the fucking line, but after about 3 seconds, Steady Eddy just bursts into laughter, and so did I. The room finally stopped being uncomfortable after about 10 seconds, and everyone else starting laughing too. After the show one of the fat chicks starts in on how inconsiderate I was. I talked to Steady Eddy a couple minutes later as he was waddling through the crowd on his crutches, I told him that his Palsy ass just cockblocked me. He took a look at her, and told me I should have thanked him. And then I did, and I bought him a beer.
Focus: I don't know if I should classify this as racism/questionable hiring practices working against me, or just my own personal bitterness, but I have been turned down for many jobs because my Spanish wasn't good enough. Admittedly, my Spanish is pretty stilted/patchy. I'm much better at listening to it and understanding it, and reading it than actually replying to what was spoken to me. I can usually give you a yes or no answer on anything you say to me in Spanish, but don't ask me for a detailed explaination. I can understand that if I am going to be applying for a job where I will need comprehensive knowledge of the Spanish language that I would be passed over for someone who is more fluent. But for fast food jobs when I was a teenager? I couldn't find a job as a teen to save my life. Not being fluent in Spanish was almost always the excuse when I was turned down; the second was not having any experience in the industry in which I was applying. Later on, after getting technical training, I got the same bullshit line from some potential employers (not being fluent in Spanish). I eventually got my foot in the door to the automotive/heavy-duty truck industry, and finally got a job. The bullshit part about it: you don't need to know Spanish to work on cars/trucks/power equipment; you don't need to know English for that matter (A lot of the guys working in that industry down here don't). The service writer or manager does all that. You rarely talk to the customer. The thing that pisses me off the most about all this: Not one week goes by when I come across some person in a service industry that doesn't know English. It doesn't matter if it's at a convenience store or a tire shop, they don't know what the customer is saying. And I was turned down for those jobs. What's even worse is when the manager doesn't know English to amount to shit, AND THEY ARE THE ONES RUNNING THE PLACE. I was denied jobs multiple times for having the same comprehension level of another language that they do. Lots of people I have talked to have told me that my experience is a clear-cut case of racism; I try to think of it as a clearcut case of possible missunderstanding, and just maybe people being assholes. I have been brushing up on my Spanish ever since. EDIT: Oh, I also forgot to mention that the demographics of my region are about 95% Latino, and I'm white.
Walk through the cental business district of Melbourne on any given day and depending on the time and day, you could be forgiven if you thought you were in some hybrid Asian-Indian city.
I almost got patted down in an Abercrombie for supposedly stealing cologne. Yeah yeah, Abercrombie. Lay off, I was 13. More to the point, being brown means I can walk around and not be fucked with in the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America (I imagine) and even some inner cities here in the US. So there's that. EDIT: Almost forgot - Indian people are wayyyy over-represented in higher education. So being an Indian kid from Jersey really killed my chances in the Ivy League crapshoot.
Another on the big and tall bandwagon, and adding in people with big but not quite mutant sized feet Most shoe companies cut off their shoes at size 12 or 13 Mens, but once you hit 16-18 you have a ton of companies making shoes again mostly for basketball players and such. If you're a size 14 (like I do) or 15 you're basically boned.
Focus: Fuck yes, I've been discriminated against. Have flatter features than the average white dude means I'm a God damn child. Nowhere is this more apparent than at a movie theater. These pimply little attendants working to save up for shitty weed will straight up ask me for my ID, even when my friends pass by without so much as a glance. I blame this bum-fuck town for thinking "white is right". Hillbillies, all of them. Speaking of hillbillies, I was shooting the shit with my friend's mom on day when she decides that it would be an appropriate time to tell me that she has feet problems. In addition to getting medicated, she goes to an Asian massage parlor to work out the kinks. Well, it turns out that tiny Asian hands do, in fact, give awesome massages. As she's talking to me, her eyes light up, asking me if I'm related to *insert bastardized-redneck-make-believe Chinese*. As an aside, yes, I am the arbiter of all things Oriental. No one will dispute me since I was clearly sent by my Asian forefathers to keep those honkies up-to-date.
My buddy was recently paralyzed and is in a motorized wheelchair. We continually bust his balls and tell him he owes us money for buying his lazy ass coffee, etc. He gets a lot of "how ya doin', buddy?" in loud, slow talk from idiots when we go out. The other night a hot waitress totally treated him like a "normal" guy and it was awesome, but it's not the norm in our experience so far.