I'm sorry I forgot to mention this the other day
A few times in a persons' life, one is given an opportunity to do something so wonderful, so oddly human, so-so-so twisted and wrong. We're given the opportunity to show some asshole up. I have now had two of these delightful experiences. On the first I didn't make the best decision, but I'm not sure I could have played my second any more perfectly.
On the flight back from Denver I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to be sitting next to an old married couple in an exit row. They were fairly quiet until the flight attendent came round to make sure we were able to handle an emergency, and that we had, indeed, read the safety information card. After she left, the husband pulled out the information card to refresh his memory. It was then he became an asshole.
He started making comments about the Japanese, the Chinese, the Korean, pretty much anyone who doesn't use our alphabet as the primary method of writing. Mostly, he focused on the Japanese (possibly because that was the one language he could recognize...?), and kept repeating how stupid he thought they were for not adopting the roman alphabet. "It's too difficult," he complained, "how are we supposed to do business with them if we can't read what they write???" His wife, another United employee I learned, disreguarded everything he was saying with a wave of her hand.
After he exhausted his wonderfully tight alphabet argument, he started to make general racist comments about the Japanese and Asians. I was fuming at this point, as I'm sure you can imagine.
But! Instead of being the loud mouth who speaks before she thinks, I took a moment to analyze this situation. I could shout at him for being a racist bastard, and thus, get all my frustration out. However, he would immediately have dismissed me as "crazy plane girl." I didn't really want to be "crazy plane girl," I wanted to be classy in this situation, and I wanted him to think long and hard about what he said. I wanted it to be the only thing he thought about on the flight.
I didn't want to be "crazy plane girl," I wanted him to think long and hard about his offenses. I wanted him to concentrate about his remarks for the entire plane ride.
And the best way to do this?
Quietly, I opened my bag and pulled out a Japanese comic and started reading. He looked over my shoulder, saw the manga, drained the color from his face, and went completely silent for the remainder of the flight.
I was satisfied.
On the flight back from Denver I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to be sitting next to an old married couple in an exit row. They were fairly quiet until the flight attendent came round to make sure we were able to handle an emergency, and that we had, indeed, read the safety information card. After she left, the husband pulled out the information card to refresh his memory. It was then he became an asshole.
He started making comments about the Japanese, the Chinese, the Korean, pretty much anyone who doesn't use our alphabet as the primary method of writing. Mostly, he focused on the Japanese (possibly because that was the one language he could recognize...?), and kept repeating how stupid he thought they were for not adopting the roman alphabet. "It's too difficult," he complained, "how are we supposed to do business with them if we can't read what they write???" His wife, another United employee I learned, disreguarded everything he was saying with a wave of her hand.
After he exhausted his wonderfully tight alphabet argument, he started to make general racist comments about the Japanese and Asians. I was fuming at this point, as I'm sure you can imagine.
But! Instead of being the loud mouth who speaks before she thinks, I took a moment to analyze this situation. I could shout at him for being a racist bastard, and thus, get all my frustration out. However, he would immediately have dismissed me as "crazy plane girl." I didn't really want to be "crazy plane girl," I wanted to be classy in this situation, and I wanted him to think long and hard about what he said. I wanted it to be the only thing he thought about on the flight.
I didn't want to be "crazy plane girl," I wanted him to think long and hard about his offenses. I wanted him to concentrate about his remarks for the entire plane ride.
And the best way to do this?
Quietly, I opened my bag and pulled out a Japanese comic and started reading. He looked over my shoulder, saw the manga, drained the color from his face, and went completely silent for the remainder of the flight.
I was satisfied.