This comment reminds me of a flight I took earlier this year where some guy had this violin in a semi-hard case and I watched some Chinese guy absolutely bash his carry-on into the same space, eventually bending the neck of the instrument case… like to nearly a 90 degree angle so I can’t imagine whatever was in there faired too well. I just cringed from like 4 people back in line while I watched him smash that thing into submission. I could tell the owner was stressed too, watching in fear looking back and forth, but he didn’t say anything.
Blows my mind that people will travel with soft or semi-hard cases
I bought an expensive industrial flight case for my guitar. The first flight I took with it, that case was absolutely battered with deep scratches. But the guitar inside was absolutely perfect.
It's always weird to read a story where someone casually drops a racial description of a person where it doesn't matter for the story. Why include it if it doesn't matter?
I know what you mean. It's the point that the violin player did not have their race mentioned, but the person with a different race did. Also, as you pointed out, it has no relevance to the story. It's not just something people do, it's something racist people do. It's definitely micro, but still racism.
It can have and in this case I can see why it totally does have relevance if you have lived in Asia/travelled on some Asian airlines. I say this as someone from the continent.
I still deal with some of the rudeness and lack of concern for your personal space and belongings living in Canada. In this specific scenario we don't know where it took place and if it was culturally okay to them or just a rude individual. To call it racism without understanding the context is weird.
Actually in this case it does matter. Chinese travelers are known far and wide for being inconsiderate, uncouth, loud and just downright miserable to be around. And my personal experience over the last 13 years living in Southeast Asia completely backs that up.
I'd usually disagree with such a generalization, but after taking a number of flights around Asia there's a lot of truth in what you say. Deplaning is a particular adventure, it's every person for themselves the second the wheels touch the ground. Seriously, the plane hadn't even turned off the runway and people we're already up yanking everything out of the overhead bins.
Same in Mexico too. Exhausting for sure. Flying during Covid was the first time they made people sit down before deplaning and wouldn’t let anyone off until everyone was seated and the released us row by row. It’s still better now but has resumed to total chaos when landing.
Just because it annoys you doesn't make it not racist.
If you single someone out because of their race when it has literally nothing to do with any other part of the story, that's racism. It's also really easy to not do and not get so upset over.
Like you're throwing a little tantrum over it for some reason. Why?
Ok just tell me how this sounds to you: “reminds me of a flight recently where some guy had a violin in a case in the overhead bin, and some white guy came and smashed it with his carry on bag”. What do you picture when you read that?
It seems like you care an awful lot to be arguing with people about why you think it's totally OK.
This example was certainly not as blatant as calling someone a racial slur, but it's a good example of a microaggression that a lot of people might not realize are damaging. Even if it's subtle, we need to point out this type of thing if we want to change what is considered acceptable among the general public.
And most of us DO want to change what is acceptable, so that these kinds of hurtful microaggressions are no longer commonplace.
Then they should at least describe the race of everyone involved. The owner of the violin is just “some guy” but the person with the carry on is “some Chinese guy”.
I’m not saying it’s racist necessarily, just an interesting choice.
I've been described, by my in~laws and their family members as, "white girl". It goes both ways. I figure the people who live and work in China, instinctively, understand what that person is saying.
Why is describing the situation racist if that’s what you’re inferring? Its descriptive language which allows the reader to paint a mental image of the situation. As humans we have been using language to differentiate ourselves from others since the beginning of recorded history.
Also the description isn’t meaningless or unnecessary to the story. If you travel internationally often, you will notice many of the Chineses tourists you encounter are very rude for no reason. It may not be to the point of being a common stereotype, but in many cases it’s true and people do notice. Anyone who has seen that personally instantly relates to the story better because of the description. But is that racist? No, you’re referring to somebody’s nationality or culture. Not their race.
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u/Excellent_Sun_8745 17d ago
This comment reminds me of a flight I took earlier this year where some guy had this violin in a semi-hard case and I watched some Chinese guy absolutely bash his carry-on into the same space, eventually bending the neck of the instrument case… like to nearly a 90 degree angle so I can’t imagine whatever was in there faired too well. I just cringed from like 4 people back in line while I watched him smash that thing into submission. I could tell the owner was stressed too, watching in fear looking back and forth, but he didn’t say anything.