Racism

[lph]

If she is very closeminded and confident in her ways you probably won't make any difference, but if you suspect she is at all open to discussing her views you could get a really interesting discussion going. It's very human to be xenophobic, but it's a mark of intelligence and empathy to be able to rise above it. You could bring it up gently, commend her on her honesty and ask her directly why she feels it's "natural" to be a little racist. Maybe she has some bad experiences to tell, maybe she's just repeating what her parents and friends think, maybe she never has been challenged on it before.

Most of the time we do react by rote, and it takes a little jostling to see that our reactions are irrational, and can have negative effects we haven't thought about. Like offending coworkers. If you accept that her reaction is natural for her but is based on misconceptions you have a chance of changing it. Depending on her personality of course.

[beccaB]

This really hurt me a few years back and I think now I have a forum to tell this to, meaning ..you guys will understand whereas all my complaints have fell on deaf ears before.
A family friend of my husband's was visiting us, and out of the blue, and I don't know how this subject even got started- but he said, and I quote..." Jews are so crooked you have to nail them into their coffins".
And after picking up my jaw from the floor and praying my young kids did not hear that trash, I said to him.." That's odd-nobody on my Dad's side of the family is like that, and they're all Jewish"
He was an elderly man and his 30ish daughter quickly changed the subject. I never did get an apology from him.

[Biciclista]

This really hurt me a few years back and I think now I have a forum to tell this to, meaning ..you guys will understand whereas all my complaints have fell on deaf ears before.
A family friend of my husband's was visiting us, and out of the blue, and I don't know how this subject even got started- but he said, and I quote..." Jews are so crooked you have to nail them into their coffins".
And after picking up my jaw from the floor and praying my young kids did not hear that trash, I said to him.." That's odd-nobody on my Dad's side of the family is like that, and they're all Jewish"
He was an elderly man and his 30ish daughter quickly changed the subject. I never did get an apology from him.

EW!!
It's been a long time for me, but i have been in the same position, getting nasties from some boor who didn't notice that i was what they were putting down. Or maybe they did notice.

[beccaB]

What's really scary is the kids. Bigot kids. Someone said the young were less affected by predjudice, but I see it every day on my school bus. Misconceptions too. One kid thinks all jews look a certain way. I politely informed him of my blond haired and blue eyed jewish ancestors from Russia. I like it when I can change a kids perception, but the out and out hatred is hard to deal with.

[Trek420]

the out and out hatred is hard to deal with.

Yeah, I wonder where they learned that?

Thank you for speaking up. Little by little this is how change occurs.

10 ways to stamp out hate:

www.tolerance.org/10_ways/index.html

[MartianDestiny]

This really hurt me a few years back and I think now I have a forum to tell this to, meaning ..you guys will understand whereas all my complaints have fell on deaf ears before.
A family friend of my husband's was visiting us, and out of the blue, and I don't know how this subject even got started- but he said, and I quote..." Jews are so crooked you have to nail them into their coffins".
And after picking up my jaw from the floor and praying my young kids did not hear that trash, I said to him.." That's odd-nobody on my Dad's side of the family is like that, and they're all Jewish"
He was an elderly man and his 30ish daughter quickly changed the subject. I never did get an apology from him.

Sometimes the embarrassed, stunned look on their face when they realize they've really screwed up has to be enough.

My college roommate my sophomore year spent two weeks griping about what horrible people and Christians Catholics and "protestants" (by that she meant Lutherans and Episcopals exclusively) where and how they had everything wrong as she wrote her final paper for a religion class (on the subject of what horrible people they were; I hope that got her a really bad grade...).

I kept my mouth shut on grounds of having to live with her for a few more months. Sweet redemption came with the horrified and embarrassed look on her face when she came by to say hi on Ash Wednesday and saw the cross on my forehead.

She never spoke to me again, but the look on her face was retribution enough for me.

[bmccasland]

Is "slighly prejudiced" anything like "a little bit pregnant?"

Said co-worker can choose whether or not to bike ride with whom she chooses for whatever reason floats her boat, but as it's been pointed out, it is bad for her boss's business if she is treating the customers poorly because they are not members of the right skin color or religion club. There are laws covering that. If she wants to keep her job, she'd better grin and bear it, and treat ALL the customers the same. Either be pleasant to everyone or be cold to everyone.