Am I A Racist???

[Shocky]

I go to Subway, but I intentionally drive past 3 subways onto the one subway I am trying to get to. Why do I do this? Because those three Subways are owned by Indians (India Indians).

I don't have a problem with Indians per se, but I do have a problem with there service. No, I understand them just fine, they are nice and courteous, I tend to find their restaurants far more clean and orderly then subways owned by white (I presume). However, I can't leave a restaurant that "they" own without feeling ripped off. They are meticulous when it comes to giving out a designated weight for their sandwiches, where as subways that aren't owned by Indians I find tend to load up my sandwich much more.

Someone at work suggested I was racist, I don't think I am, in fact I know I'm not. I'm choosing to get the most bang for my buck. Sure, the non-Indian subways are typically dirtier, ruder, and all that, but they give me what I came for, and that's a fucking sandwich loaded ready for me to eat.

 

[Slim Pickns]

No, it sounds like you have a problem with the way they run those certain restaurants, not them in general. If you said "I don't go to the three Subways closest to my house because its run by Indians" and had no reasonable excuse, then you would come off as racist.

Its similar to the stats we have on crime here in Minneapolis. More than half of crimes here are case by black men. If any news station or paper broadcasts or prints that, people call them racist. Its not picking on black people or in your cause Indians, its just something that has shown to be true. If you go to a different area in Minnesota, more than half of the crimes could be white men. If you go to a different Subway, you can get better service, from what may happen to be an Indian, white, black, or whatever.

Race is always the first thing people look at, but its hardly ever the reason for anything.

 

[George Michael]

Can't you ask for more toppings..?
Anytime I'm at a Subway and the server gets stingy I tell her/him to add more until I say when. I thought that's what Subway was about.

 

[Sparky]

I dont thk your a Racist, You just want more for your Money. Its like me when i go out for a few drinks, I choose to go to a Restaurant run by Asians then a local pub, not because you get a meal as well becouse whe you buy a drink its twice as strong as it is when you buy it from a pub. Hell if i lived where you did i would do the same. I dont think it would change if it was the White guy at the two subways you wont go to and it was an Indian at the one you do. Its just becouse you want the option that will fill you up the most.

 

[Tastycles]

Well ask yourself this, if the Subway you go to started giving the same meagre portions would you stop going there? If not, then you are a racist, without a doubt. You needn't have mentioned that all of the Subways you don't go to are owned by Indians, as you have a valid reason for not going, but that arises the second test...

If you went to a new town, and they had two Subways, and you somehow found out that the one you are closest to is owned by an Indian, what do you do? Bear in mind that you know nothing else about this town. If you would avoid it, and go to the white owned one, then you are generalising and stereotyping, and as a result, I would consider you to be a racist.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

I think the first question that should instantly be asked before you ask yourself if you're racist, is why the hell do you have FOUR Subways in that close an area. lol That's over doing it a bit much, don't you think?

Now then.. in my opinion, you aren't racist in the slightest. You're doing exactly what you said you were doing, and thats trying to get the best value for your money. I wouldn't want to pay a certain amount of money, for a very small amount of food.

An example would be myself and McDonald's...

I pay over $10.00 for myself and my meal alone now. (3 Large Fries, 2 Big Macs - yes, I eat it all) I'm not going to pay them for a meal I won't eat everything from, short of being full, though. And the fact is, fries (to me) suck when they get soggy. So I ask for fresh fries. The reply I get 99.8% of the time is always "Our fries are always fresh, they just came up." Yet I've been waiting in line for 2-5 minutes, or longer and haven't seen one basket "come up."

So I say, it's not a problem and I'll wait. I don't care if I have to wait 10 minutes or longer. But I'm paying a large amount of money (to me) for a meal.. so I want to make sure, I'm getting the best quality meal I can, for my money.

Now, the connection to this is recently my McDonald's has hired a lot, and I mean a lot of African Americans to work there. Do I care? Not as long as they make my food and do their job. But recently, I've taken more and more slack from them, because they feel I'm actually picking them out of a group and demanding that they do something none of the other customers make them do.

As a result, I myself had to question whether I was being racist. Of course that was a rhetorical question, because I'd be doing that for as long as I could remember, to everyone be them white, black, mexican, male, female, or any other random race.

So the bottomline is, I understand exactly what you're going through, and no you're not racist. You just want the best value of food you can get, for the amount of money you're paying. In the end, if the guy in front of you orders the same thing and gets his sandwich loaded.. then you get what's left but not as many toppings.. you damn sure aren't going to be paying less than him.. so yes, if I'm paying a selective amount for something.. I'm getting the best I can get. Regardless of who you are.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

There's a fine line between taking minor actions on perceived cultural differences vs being a racist.

Remember, in the American economy, your dollar is a vote in the economy. In this case, you voted for value. That's ok. Some people may prefer to go to the Subways owned by the Indian people because of the perception of cleanliness. That's ok too.

You didn't avoid the Indian-owned Subway BECAUSE they were Indian. You did so BECAUSE you perceived the sandwiches you receive there as smaller, and thusly of lessor value. The fact that those sandwiches were provided BY Indian people is coincidental.

NOW - if you got sandwiches of the exact same size and value from EITHER Subway - or worse, if the Indian-owned Subway gave you BIGGER sandwiches, and you still avoided them to go to a white-owned Subway, there may be the perception of some minor bigotry there.

 

[HBK-aholic]

This isn't racism. If it were white people who weren't giving you value for money, you'd avoid them and go to the shop owned by the Indians. Bottom line is, you aren't doing it because they're Indian. I'm presuming you've been to those 3 stores, and not been happy with what you paid for. There's nothing wrong with going somewhere where you know will serve you better, and make you happier.

I agree with Slims comment about race at the bottom. Racism is perceived to be the cause of so much, when it rarely is. People now become afraid to act a certain way against people of a different race, due to fear of being branded a racist.

When taking Jessica to school, I once saw a teacher, who was Asian, slap a child on their head. It's something I hate and is illegal, therefore I mentioned it to the headteacher next time I saw her. She said she'd speak to him, and I was happy it'd be resolved. However a few weeks later I saw the same occur. This time I wasn't happy at all. If he ever hit Jessica I'd have literally killed him. So I went to the head again, and this time put my complaint in writing. She said she'd look into it. However, what I got in return was the teacher accusing me of racism, as twice I had queried about the way he acts towards children, and he's a different race to me. It's completely stupid.

 

[justinsayne]

I just find it funny that Shockey is willing to drive further, just to get a little more "bang for his buck" gas is $4.00 a gallon and he's driving but he wants to make sure the money he throws down for his sandwich is getting him the most crap on his sandwich it possibly can

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

Okay, the black man is going to give his two cents on this. I, think that you have a small bit of racist in you. But on that same note, so do I. So does everybody here. As hard as we try to be impartial and understanding and unbiased, we affix our own general stereotypes onto races based upon the interactions that we have with people of the same race. It has nothing to do with any kind of hatred or pettiness or anything of the sort. It mainly has to do with the fact that no matter how "cool" and "understanding" any of us claim to be, we all have a racist side.

Now I'm not saying that we are going to get together and start doing some cross burning, but it's not something that we are going to get past and the more we beat ourselves up about it, the more it is bothersome. But amazingly the only person that it will truly bother will be yourself. So whatever reasons you have for disliking the Subway, I'm sure that they same people would develop generalizations about you as well.

But, if it means anything, I feel you on the whole meat weighing thing. The jackass that owns the Quiznos here weighs every fragment of meat that he puts on sandwiches down to the ounce. He also slices it superthin, thinner than any other Quiznos that I have been to. Did I forget to mention that he is Jewish? So guess what generalization my subconscious made about this experience.

Did I blame it on his own personal thriftiness? Nope. Did I blame it on the fact that he is personally a prick and may not give a damn about his customers? Nope. In te back of my head, the first thing that came up was the fact that he was Jewish and was cheating me out of my meat. And I found it to be really weird as I stopped dating a girls because it offended me that she would say that someone "Jewed" her if she got shorted or cheated by someone.

So yeah, I know how you feel and understand.

 

[Shocky]

I just find it funny that Shockey is willing to drive further, just to get a little more "bang for his buck" gas is $4.00 a gallon and he's driving but he wants to make sure the money he throws down for his sandwich is getting him the most crap on his sandwich it possibly can

Haha, I know it's probably different here in Cincy as opposed to you in South Dakota. In the five miles it takes me to drive to work, if I go no more then a few blocks off the main road, I would pass five subways. Seriously, Subways are like gas stations, so going a little extra isn't saying too much. Within ten miles of my house, I would seriously say there are 25 subways, and it's not a stretch.

Oh and Spawn, I agree with your everyone is a little racist comment whole heartedly. You can't help but be. Everyone was raised with a certain emphasis on some type of background. It's natural and no one should be ashamed of having some thoughts, everyone does. As much as people don't want to think they are, deep down everyone has some predetermined opinion of someone based upon their appearance.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

No you arent racist, even IF the issue were based off of race. fuck it, its cultures, and experiences with said cultures. It has to do more with cultures and areas than anything. I live in the north east, and dont go fast food places with black people working at the front desk. becuase in this section of the country, for that culture, being lazy as fuck, and having a huge attitude, is the "in" thing to do. I know this from everyday interaction, and from receiving absolute SHIT service from individuals such as this on numerous occasions. So fuck em, I dont go there. If you have the repeated incidents with those people at those stores, then fuck em, dont go. Its nothing to do with racism. Its different interactions with different types of individuals, on numerous occasions.

 

[Mr. TM]

Hmm, at my subway, I'm not sure who owns it. And by my subway, its the one i like to go to, because its so happy there. But anyways, some fill up my sub to the top, they are the ones who i always see there, while some fill it up to the level probably that they are taught to fill it up. It has nothing to do with skin colour for my case. In your case, i think its just the subway you like is the one that attracts you. The other subways having an Indian owner is just a coincidence.