Who says only Chinese people are rude?
Wow. Just had an experience that I cannot comprehend and just absolutely need to write down. Partly so I can remember this later and laugh, and partly to vent to other people.
Regular day coming home from work… not sure how many elementary school teachers you know, but most come home exhausted, particularly this late in the school year. Noise, report cards, cleaning up, packing, sorting, more noise. Anyway, I walk into my building and wait by the elevator with a few other people. One of them is a huffy white girl. By huffy, I mean huffy…. not only her body language, but the noises that were coming out of her too.
When the elevator doors open, there is a bit of a kerfuffle, a few people are getting with various amounts of baggage and everyone is trying to press the button of their floor under the arm of a woman who is so graciously holding the “door open” button so that everyone can get in. The white girl (sorry that that is the only word I have to describe her but it is a multi-layered connotation) shoves in and loudly says, “Can we at least get in?” I know that in her mind, no one understands her, because no one in China, speaks English, right? But seriously, lady, people all over the world understand tone, body language and many people do speak English. I have the benefit of “blending in.”
Everyone gets in, the doors close and she realizes she has forgotten to push her floor. So she physically pushes me, punches 10 hard and huffs again. Okay. I am a Chinese-American from New York. Do I stand for that?
I immediately turn around and say, firmly, “You don’t have to be rude.” I am looking her straight in the eyes and her mouth softly falls agape with a little bit of an “ugh.” I think this is what it means when people say that someone’s jaws literally dropped. I’m not sure if her shock was from me speaking American English, or from feeling aghast that someone would dare talk back to her. In the same huffy tone, she responds finally, “I just meant that we could all get in first.” Then the worst part, she made some kind of a motion with her hands at the other people, as if I might agree with her and be on her side. I said, “Well she was holding the door. That was the point.”
I can’t really remember her reaction, but there wasn’t much else for me to say, so I turned away. She is still muttering, “Whatever, I don’t really care anyway.” A few people get out and we all re-arrange to have more personal space. I simply say, “You don’t have to take your bad day out on everyone else.” She is silent. We arrive at her floor and she passive-aggressively whispers “bitch” on her way out the door. At the same time, I cheerfully say “Have a nice day.” And the doors close.
Really? Am I the bitch in this scenario? Hope she owns a good mirror at home.
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