Harmless Fun? Walmart Apologizes to Muslim Woman

[MA-Caver]

Wal-Mart apologizes to Muslim woman
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_apology;_ylt=Aoqt7ykUXLJZOGENDi_97IJH2ocA
Tue Feb 19, 11:46 PM ET
RIVERDALE, Utah - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apologized to a Muslim woman who said she was mocked because of her face veil.
"Please don't stick me up," a cashier told the shopper on Feb. 2, according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Wal-Mart apologized Monday in a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, a vice president and regional general manager. It was released Tuesday by the council's Nevada chapter.

This doesn't help when making a casual joke to a woman trying to live her life as the constitution allows under the first amendment, and how outsiders would hear of it and still see racial prejudice still evident in this country.
I'm sure the employee wasn't thinking (obviously) and was trying to make light of what might've been a rough/bad day for them. Still the choice of words based on appearances/mode of dress was a bad one.
How is it that we are going to teach our youths the difference between good and bad muslims if this is going on?

 

[jim777]

I don't think it's a good/bad Muslim thing, as much as it is common sense thing regarding who you are and where you are.
I would like to think that if I was going out into the world dressed like 0.001% of the country I'd be ready for the occasional angry/frightened comment. Far more likely is the simply stupid or ignorant comments from people who think they have a right to make jokes about strangers to their faces. This comment doesn't sound like it was meant seriously, but rather was just a goofy/ignorant type of toss away line, though it could certainly be construed as offensive.
That said, it seems to me that somewhere between 1% to 5% of any given total population in any given place are total asshats anyway, so you'd really have to expect some ignorant comments on occasion if you know before leaving the house that you are very unlikely to see anyone else dressed even remotely like you are. I think the offended person here needs to get a grip; if you stick out like a sore thumb on purpose, no matter what the reason, stupid people will giggle at you because that's what stupid people do. It doesn't mean all those comments are hate filled, and it doesn't mean everyone out there is evil. Back in '78 if you had green hair people would call you all sorts of names, now you don't even get a second glance.

 

[thardey]

My first thought was that his comment didn't have to do with Islam at all -- she was wearing a "face mask" and this mouth-breather had probably stayed up all night watching Blazing Saddles.

I just got that from his choice of words -- people with bandannas on their face are known for saying "This is a stick up." Muslims aren't really known for that. I don't think he even realized why she was wearing the face covering.

Sounds like more of an issue of ignorance.

 

[theletch1]

My first thought was that his comment didn't have to do with Islam at all -- she was wearing a "face mask" and this mouth-breather had probably stayed up all night watching Blazing Saddles.

I just got that from his choice of words -- people with bandannas on their face are known for saying "This is a stick up." Muslims aren't really known for that. I don't think he even realized why she was wearing the face covering.

Sounds like more of an issue of ignorance.

Hey! What's wrong with Blazing Saddles?!:lol2: Them schnizengruben will wear you out!

 

[crushing]

How is it that we are going to teach our youths the difference between good and bad muslims if this is going on?

This isn't just about differentiating between good and bad people (independent of religion, ethnicity, etc.), it's about keeping one's mouth shut around the humorless.

If I hadn't made fun of a customer when I worked at a grocery store, or if she didn't have a sense of humor, my life might be completely different now.

 

[CoryKS]

What I would have done is to look the clerk right in the eye and say, "You know, when people say things like that it makes me so mad I could just explode." The look on the clerk's face would have been priceless.

 

[jetboatdeath]

Who do I get to complain too when a stupid mis-thought joke is tossed at me.....? Get over it .... Reminds me of grade school.....

 

[Archangel M]

Who do I get to complain too when a stupid mis-thought joke is tossed at me.....? Get over it .... Reminds me of grade school.....

I have to agree with you. Why is it that when some people take offense its national news but others get nothing?

 

[Ray]

I dunno. It's one thing to make a "harmless joke" when you're on your own time, but when you do it while working it paints a picture of the organization.

I cannot count the number of polygamy jokes I've endured and generally I try to endure them without getting upset.

 

[MA-Caver]

Hey! What's wrong with Blazing Saddles?!:lol2: Them schnizengruben will wear you out!

Ohh baby, you are sooo talented... and they are so DUMB!

Thing is the guy works for a major store chain, and thus could've ruined the store's already sullied reputation (snicker).
If it were a punk-rocker with blue spiked mohawk hair and a dozen piercings on his face... would the guy made a flippant comment?
We've seen enough exposure from the news on how Muslim women typically dress. To say that he didn't even realize is not being realistic.

At least the air-- wait what was the other name? Oh yeah, mouth-breather didn't say to the woman: "Don't blow us up!" That would've definitely been racial stereotyping.

 

[ChadWarner]

Walmart is not a place where the best and brightest congregate. The workers are only paid 9 bucks an hour and half don't get bennies because they are classified as temporay workers... I don't think making a remark such as the one made should ruffle feathers... R we really at the point in america where everything has to be politically correct or there will be a consequence?

Americans now take a back seat to foriegners in our own country? I don't see how the people are always in the wrong and we bare the responsibilty of the world. In her own country she would have been dismembered for speaking out of line. So now the US rolls out the red carpet for a foriegner in place of the US worker working at a walmart?

When right is wrong and wrong is right it is the end of our country. Sure it is not the best case of professionalism but its walmart. And who persecuted Bush for destablizing an entire region and running up a giant debt left to those working at walmart with no medical insurance. Doesn't seem fair or right to me. Americans must come first- our health, our well being, and our dignity as tax payers that support the system in which we all live in.

 

[Sukerkin]

I think this is one of those examples where the PC is overwhelming common sense. It's a phenomenon of the past few decades and a most unwelcome one.

The chap made a joke, a lighthearted, off-hand, comment to a customer (or at least that's what it seems like). Humourless till-operators are the bane of any shoppers life. The fellow should be commended for interacting with the customer, not censured.

We're losing our way with this nonsense. Not so long ago, in the Little India part of Stoke (aka Shelton) it was not uncommon for Indians, Stokies and Pakistani's to exchange good-humoured witticisms about each others religious garb and habits. Now it's all too po-faced and serious because some eejuts in a far-off land have decided that their invisible sky-god is more sacred than everyone elses.

 

[MA-Caver]

I think there is a difference between politically correctness and just plain respect. It's quite possible that the Muslim woman in question is a full fledged American citizen and even likely that she was born in this country... it's how her parents chose to raise her. Not having those details however ... everything is speculation at this point. So it's not putting some foreigner over an American. My father's family is Irish and my mother's Dutch. Should I be offended at Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles with the line "...Ok, we'll share the land...but we don't want the Irish!"? No. But we, (I) come from foreign lineage. So it stands to reason that I should be offended right? Knowing the history of the American west? How the Irish were treated along the same lines as Chinese and Mexican immigrants? As "less than".
Still, it's basically respect. Respect of culture, religion, education and so on. Stereotyping... bank robbers wear masks so anyone wearing a mask/veil over their face is a robber. The guy should've been just friendly, asking the lady "professional" questions like: Did you find everything you needed? Or disarming questions like: "How is your day today?" and all with a smile.
I'll joke with a total stranger and do it often enough, but it's carefully constructed so that the joke can apply to anyone and doesn't have specifics.
Generally I'll get antyhing between a knowing smile or even a good gaffaw out of them. If I don't, I'll acknowledge to myself that they're having a bad day or just simply not in the mood.
There's a time and a place to poke unpolticial fun at people specifically, spontaneously. Comedy clubs where it's expected. Robin Williams is a master of that as we all know and expect. You don't expect it from the checker at a Walmart.

 

[Carol]

Personally I think the situation is exacerbated due to the parties involved: CAIR and Wal-Mart.

CAIR is known for being very hardline, and they generate a lot of press for it.

Wal-Mart is a ginormous company with deep pockets that many people like to demonize.

Had such a comment been made by some dude selling soft pretzels outside of Fenway Park, I don't think we would have heard anything more about it.

 

[grydth]

I despise Politikal Korrectness and could care less what it dictates...... but treating this woman in such a crude fashion is wrong from basic human decency and it is simply bad business.

Nobody wants to be made fun of when shopping.

 

[Sukerkin]

Chaps, I really think that American society needs to take a deep breath and step back from the brink of behavioural brittleness. Heaven knows I'm massively in favour of polite and respectful behaviour but people also have to be able to allow some things to flow over them like water off a ducks back.

Honestly, if I'd taken umbridge at every time someone made a joke at the expense of what I looked like or dressed like ...

Now if the chap in question meant to offend that's a different matter.

 

[Fiendlover]

i agree that that person wasnt thinking and shouldnt hav done that. now that theres still a war going on with iraq that ppl should watch what they say more than ever. i hav seen this happen with jewish ppl as well were someone made a casual joke about there nose or something as a causual joke and it turned ugly.:argue:

 

[MA-Caver]

I despise Politikal Korrectness and could care less what it dictates...... but treating this woman in such a crude fashion is wrong from basic human decency and it is simply bad business.

Nobody wants to be made fun of when shopping.

Thank you.

 

[grydth]

Chaps, I really think that American society needs to take a deep breath and step back from the brink of behavioural brittleness. Heaven knows I'm massively in favour of polite and respectful behaviour but people also have to be able to allow some things to flow over them like water off a ducks back.

Honestly, if I'd taken umbridge at every time someone made a joke at the expense of what I looked like or dressed like ...

Now if the chap in question meant to offend that's a different matter.

In general, I'd also like to see we in the USA take a step back.... no, make that many steps back....... from the cult of the offended victim that afflicts a wide cross section of our society. Too many who will shriek, "Awk! I'm offended!" at the slightest provocation, real or imagined.

That said, the specific joke was lame and stores who embarrass shoppers will see increasing numbers migrate over to Target to shop.

I have no use for the trumpeting group here. CAIR can go engage in a hermaphroditic act..... but on a human level this woman and all other people should get better treatment at the market.

 

[jks9199]

In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, one character tries to explain jokes to a computer, talking about how some things are funny once, others are only funny in some circumstances.

Sorry... this one wouldn't be funny, outside of the very narrow circumstances where EVERYONE involved knows the person and is essentially in on the joke.

That said -- WALMART doesn't owe the woman an apology. The idiot cashier does.

And the dumbasses stirring the pile? They should be drop kicked into somewhere very warm, and not (reportedly) at all desert-like.