Message 1272 of 22774 in Behind the Bar

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> I am always in awe with this topic solely spurred by my own personal 
> experiences.  While I understand where you are coming from and your 
> rationale behind it, but sometimes it makes me want to puke.

Thanks for your side, and fair explaination of it.
I too have travelled a lot, and have several anecdotes of being mistaken for 
either a local where I wasn't, a foreigner where I wasn't really, and (yes, 
worst of all) a local 'caught out' at a tourist-only locale.

I was even arrested in a tourist resort as an illegal alien once due not just 
to my apparent appearances but more to the broken dialect I'd learnt instead 
of brashly speaking English at the cops. Anyway...

It's simply that when I speak of nationalities I am familiar with, I mean no 
more by it than Male, Female, Short, Tall, Blonde, Brunette, Well dressed, or 
even 'that guy in pink shorts'.
Yes, not everyone thinks that way, but it is unreasonable (prejudiced in 
itself) to assume that everyone who uses the term 'American' (or German or 
whatever) to be using it as a pejorative.
(I also use the label 'Gay' _when_appropriate_ , but my upbringing prevents me 
from being comfortable with 'Black' - which leaves me with 'dark-skinned'. 
*sigh*) 

Extreme reactions to natural 'labels' makes it a crime for me to direct a 
waiter to 'that asian couple in the corner'. Stuff that!

In Europe (broad generalization again), a 'rum and coke' means Bacardi, or at 
least white rum. In Australasia, the default is Dark Rum.
Working in New Zealand, I would double-check with the Germans and Dutch that 
made such an order, and (as 4/5 times would prove this to be justified) I 
taught my fellow workers that point.
Would you have me discard that knowlege? This is what I mean by treating 
them differently - not barring or snubbing them.

In Greece, it is always neccessary to check with the tourists what type of 
coffee they want. For the locals (until recent years) the question was 
unneccessary and downright incompetant. I'd get shouted at for asking.

The elderly Japanese couple would feel snubbed if a beer bottle wasn't poured 
into the glass for them, while many Australians would think you were queer for 
doing so.

Denying that cultural differences exists is to commit one of the other great 
un-PC crime of the time - homogenization.


We can't sit down with every face that walks in the door, learn their lives, 
loves, hopes and dreams, and whatever it is that makes them a unique human 
being. The brain doesn't and can't work that way. Yes, everyone has their own 
character, and there are always exceptions to whatever generalizations you 
work under, but the general case is there to get you through the day without 
too many surprises.

Prejudice is bad because it admits no modification to the original opinion.
Classification is fine and neccessary, when used without intentional 
insult.
Stereotypes still seem to be un-PC, but they are only advanced forms of 
classification, are not rules, and can, nay must always be expanded and 
adopted.

If I can state that 'Most Americans have more money than most Chinese' , and 
get away with claiming that 'English are more likely to order Tea than 
Americans are', why is it so evil to observe that 'Dutch are good tippers' or 
'Italians are fussy about good coffee'?

Those statements all have the implicit premises that:
A: of course I'm not talking about every single one of them
B: this is personal opinion derived from observation
C: if this becomes wrong in the general case, I'll modify my opinions.

It's when someone starts talking without respecting those underlying ideas 
that things start to get out of hand...

.dan.

[I tried to throw some bartending-specific trivia in here to keep my post 
relevant ;-) ]