Who's the Racist?

The first thing to hit my inbox was a complaint regarding the last entry.

A woman who shall remain nameless ... oh, to Hell with that, her name is Tessa Leung (congratulations Tessa, you're the first person I've had to call out by name), whom I don't know, sent me this:

"Ordinarily a Sunday morning isn't that busy,"

Bull. It's a Sunday. It's full of Domestics. Where you been the last 10 years? Anyway

"dozens of exuberant women jabbering away in Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesian"

They are NOT "jabbering" you racist f***. They are not monkeys. They are people speaking their language. Talking. OK?

That's right, she called me a racist f*** (I blocked out the curse word here; I'm trying to run a decent web site). This is a good indication that I'm dealing with a clueless person. If I'm racist then being married to a Chinese woman makes no sense, nor does living in a city where I'm in the minority.

If she was expecting an apology based on her hysterical little rant, she was sorely mistaken. I wrote her this in response:

Thank you for providing fodder for my web site.

1. I lived in Causeway Bay for years. I know exactly what I'm talking about.

2. Lighten up, and get a sense of humour. Webster's:

Main Entry:
1jab·ber
Pronunciation:\ˈja-bər\
Function:verb
Inflected Form(s):jab·bered; jab·ber·ing \ˈja-b(ə-)riŋ\
Etymology:Middle English jaberen, of imitative origin
Date: 15th century
intransitive senses : to talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly
transitive senses : to speak rapidly or indistinctly

They were speaking rapidly. They were exuberant. This means they were excited and enthusiastic. I was enjoying it, not complaining.

There is no need to call me a "racist f***", as you put it. Grow up.

The next time you feel you need to make a point, try being less reactionary and using some tact. You'd get more respect.

Middle English, 15th Century. There weren't many monkeys in England during that period; perhaps one or two on display somewhere, but not in numbers great enough to be connected to the word jabbering. Monkeys weren't at the forefront of my mind when I wrote that sentence.

Tessa took exception to the word and connected it to monkeys, so who's the racist? If she'd read for content, she would have realised the situation was caused more by the lack of open check-out lanes than the ethnicity of the shoppers. It was the crowd, not its racial diversity, I was trying to escape.

Regardless, I wrote that entry because I was genuinely surprised by the numbers of people in the store. I've shopped there many times and have never found it that busy. Had there been more staff on hand processing purchases I wouldn't have noticed, because the queues would have been much shorter.

I don't expect everyone to agree with what I say and that's cool, but it amazes me people will say things to one another over the Internet that would get them into deep yogurt in person.

Consider this a virtual slap in the face, Tessa.

You owe me an apology.

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