As we were leaving Josef started ranting on and on about Hispanics in America. He said they should learn proper English before they are allowed in. They aren't good workers and their accent makes them worse. I started laughing at him. Then I ripped into him for being a racist.
It just seemed incredible to me. Here was someone who had immigrated to the States. Who spoke with a strong accent. While I didn't have problems understanding him other people did at times. He had faced similar comments from people who didn't like him just because he was a Russian immigrant. And here he was complaining about another immigrant who had a strong accent. Bloody hypocrite.
He didn't like being called on his hypocrisy and some of the racist stuff he said. That was pretty much the end of our friendship. The way I saw it was that it was no big loss if that is what he was like.
Talk about totally lacking in self-awareness! It's amazing how much crap, such as racism or sexism, we tolerate from someone because he or she is a friend. Eventually, though, it just gets to be too much. When I was married my husband's racism, especially against Asian people, was really through the roof. After we divorced I just couldn't deal with it anymore and finally one day I just told him outright that I thought he was a racist pig. We haven't spoken since that day, which was about 6 or 7 years ago now. I wonder what he'd think about the fact that I'm engaged to a Korean man now. I'm sure he'd call me a race traitor or some other white supremacist crap.
ReplyDeleteDaantaat
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much someone will ignore from people they know that they would never accept from others whether it is rude behaviour or racism. I learned a long time ago to call people on it, friend or not. Now that doesn't mean I was rude about pointing it out, sometimes I was, but I always try to point it out.
Your ex sounds like a piece of work. The kind you are better off without.
One question guys get asked a lot in Korea is "Who is better women from Korea or your country?" My answer is always the same, I like women, I don't care what country they are from.