When Judgement S-Inks In
I was at work today doing my normal thing. I work at a dessert place where most of my coworkers and I are college students. The hourly pay isn’t great, so I try to be as polite as I can to earn tips for my coworkers and me. A lady comes in with her child, and I do my usual thing.
Me: “Hey, how are you!”
The child excitedly orders some ice cream. The customer looks me up and down and pulls her child away from the POS.
Customer: “Please don’t talk to my child.” *Looks at her child.* “These are people you should avoid. Don’t be like him.”
The customer then turns her attention to me.
Customer: “God, why would you do that to yourself? You look dirty.”
I have forearm sleeves on both arms: a Japanese dragon to remember my dad, who passed four years ago when I was fourteen, and Japanese clouds on my other arm as a reminder for my mental health to be free and open-minded. I carefully explain to her that these tattoos tell a story and don’t make me a bad person. I say this mainly to reassure the child that I wasn’t a bad person.
Me: “These tattoos are to tell a story and don’t make me a bad person.”
Customer: “I didn’t come for your life story. I came for ice cream. Now, can I order?”
Me: “Then I don’t understand why your input was needed in the first place. It’s part of my culture. If you can’t respect something you don’t understand, then I suggest you go somewhere else because I won’t serve you.”
The customer begins to throw racial slurs until a family behind her starts arguing with her and defending me. I wasn’t exactly too sure what was being said at that point because I had just gotten my manager to help sort the situation out. The kid started crying because his mom was being yelled at by a whole family.
Another Customer: “Holy s***, can you shut your kid up?”
My manager and I both realized the kid doesn’t need to go through all of that. From here, my manager kicks the lady out and that was the end of it.
There’s much more to someone’s story that can be told rather than just their physical appearance.
