At the front desk

[mrissa]

At the front desk of the chiropractor's today, another patient stopped me to ask if she'd heard me correctly when I told the receptionist I was a writer. I agreed that I was. She started questioning me about how I go about it, quickly narrowing her specifications to how to get published (without, apparently, writing anything at all -- at first I thought she couldn't describe what she wanted to write, but it turns out she didn't know what she wanted to write). Okay, so that's bad enough, but plenty of people are in love with the idea of Being An Author without actually wanting to auth.

But then the [white] receptionist said to my [black] fellow patient, cheerfully, "Oh, and you'd be a shoe-in, because they're really into that black stuff these days. Y'know, multiculturalism and stuff." And my jaw dropped, and I thought, "Oh, Lord, this is the bit where this woman rips the receptionist's head off and feeds it to the squirrels." Because that's what I'd have done, for heaven's sake, and what just about every other writerbeing I know would have done.

Instead, my fellow patient nodded and said, "Oh, yeah, that's good." It is? Oh. Well. My mistake. I couldn't imagine a situation in which it would be appropriate to say, "they're really into that black stuff these days," but apparently I would have been wrong. Especially with "you'd be a shoe-in."

I'm still appalled, frankly.

Comments

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

(I think I'd have been with Mrissa in ripping the receptionist's head off.)

I dunno. Sometimes when people say stupid or ignorant things to me I do simply say something bland like "Oh, that's good" so that the conversation stops there. Particularly, for instance, if I were a patient and they were a receptionist who could fuck with my appointments or medical file.

(I'm not saying that's healthy. Growing up with parents who grew up under martial law doesn't do nice things to one's brain.)

[ktempest.livejournal.com]

I guess it all depends on where you're coming from. I might let a comment liek that slide on some occasions, depending on my mood or the situation. but, many times, i feel like crap like that needs to be challenged, if only for the good of society.