So this past Saturday was the annual Sakura Matsuri Festival in DC. I went with a lot of my friends and their siblings to enjoy the food, events, and dead cherry blossoms. The weather was bad, but regardless there was a good turn out. So as we sat down to eat I was knew this was the perfect setting and time to drop the comment. Going to all the previous festivals I knew there would be a rainbow of people going.
Early on we pointed a lot of people out to critique their fashion choices like the many women wearing yukata and gebi sandals. So, since we did this earlier I thought it was a good plan to point someone else out for my blog assignment, and they wouldn't find it out of the ordinary. The reason I chose the comment was because I knew that my own friends have been bullied by this comment as well so I wanted to see how he would react more than the others. I decided to go with someone they could pinpoint easily. As my friends began eating next to me I acted very surprised to see this individual to which they asked who? I pointed them out and once they recognized that person I dropped my comment.
At first they chuckled awkwardly and told me that they could see why I would say that, but they said they did not believe my comment was correct. One of them even asked me why I thought of this individual in this way. I explained to them briefly why I saw them in this manner and they didn't agree. They then argued that even though I thought in this way that there was no reason to drop this assumption.
They then gave me their point of view on this type of person and were very mature and calm about the whole thing. I was very impressed because I was proud to have seventeen and fifteen year old boys handle other opinions and comments so maturely.
-On a Very Interesting Side Note-
After we got off the bus, three Hispanic men came up to us first asking in English if we knew Spanish and then continuing to ask if we knew which bus to take to get them to Connecticut Ave. We were taken back a bit because for starters they came up randomly, secondly they wanted an answer quick and kept yelling at all of us. This was perplexing indeed I looked at the stop next to me and looked at the guys who were yelling. I was about to tell them that I thought the stop next to us would take them there, but all we got out was Connecticut avenue? (in English) before they quickly walked away yelling in Spanish that we knew Spanish looking very angry. I don't know if this was some sort of social experiment they had going on, but A it was rude, and B it got me upset. I think they obviously were playing with us and mad at the world's "Hispanic-American" teenagers for speaking English to them when their English skills were still rough and using this method to somehow take it out on us. o.O Weird and frustrating.
After we got off the bus, three Hispanic men came up to us first asking in English if we knew Spanish and then continuing to ask if we knew which bus to take to get them to Connecticut Ave. We were taken back a bit because for starters they came up randomly, secondly they wanted an answer quick and kept yelling at all of us. This was perplexing indeed I looked at the stop next to me and looked at the guys who were yelling. I was about to tell them that I thought the stop next to us would take them there, but all we got out was Connecticut avenue? (in English) before they quickly walked away yelling in Spanish that we knew Spanish looking very angry. I don't know if this was some sort of social experiment they had going on, but A it was rude, and B it got me upset. I think they obviously were playing with us and mad at the world's "Hispanic-American" teenagers for speaking English to them when their English skills were still rough and using this method to somehow take it out on us. o.O Weird and frustrating.
I also find it interesting, as you pointed out, that your friend disagreed with your comment. It's nice to think that societal/group norms disapprove of these type of comments as your friend showed, but unfortunately that's not the case in every situation. Sometimes people feel they can take the liberty to make prejudiced statements with for no apparent reason like those hispanic men.
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